When I was in school, there was this big push to become well-rounded students. That meant that we had to make time to not only become proficient in all the subjects but to also participate in extra-curricular activities and do volunteer work. We were told over and over that college admission boards, scholarship boards, and employers preferred well-rounded students. And from what I saw, it seemed to work at the time. I did well in school, I was a part of the medical academy at my high school, I volunteered at an environmental education camp and at the local hospital. When I graduated I got into my first choice college, and I had no problem finding a job (several in fact). I didn't apply for any scholarships but my sister did and she beat out a candidate who was a math wizard (whereas she was a more well-rounded student). So maybe being well-rounded was the right way to go.
Two years into college, I had already dropped out with a trail of D's and F's on my college transcripts. I was so focused on being well-rounded in school that I never took the time to discover any passion. I just went from one subject to the next, never stopping to reflect on what I really wanted to do with my life. All I saw was the end-goal: college, a career, then a family. I failed at college, I hated all of my jobs, and I screwed up all of my romantic relationships. Why did this happen when I was such a promising student in high school? Well, one good reason is that I didn't know what I wanted. I had all of these skills that I was decent at, but I was too scared to try to find out what I could be really great at for fear of failure.
I understand that one of the ideas around being well-rounded was to allow students the chance to experience a variety of activities in order for them to find something that they really enjoyed doing. However, I don't remember any teacher or counselor ever saying anything to the liking of, "Hey, take that thing that you really like doing and really focus on that, I mean really really focus on it, and work really hard to become an expert because that could be your future right there!" Instead it was more like, "Here, try this and this and this and this. Ok great, now you've tried it all. Go out there and succeed!" I didn't have a burning passion for anything I tried, but I wonder if with the right coaching, enough time, and enough reflection, if I could have developed a passion for something like music (I played the clarinet in band until it became too expensive to keep renting it), or environmental science (I loved my time at the environmental education camp). Instead, I floundered after high school. It took nearly a decade for me to become engaged again in education. How can I help my students avoid this trap?
Well, one thing I can think of is reflection, reflection, reflection. I want my kids to really know who they are when they leave school. I want them to spend so much time reflecting on what they want and what they are learning that it becomes second nature to them. I also want to push them to find something that they are interested in and to let them focus on that. So many subjects, hobbies, or activities can be intertwined with lessons in reading, writing, math, and science. Why not teach them those subjects through their passions and interests?
Concerning motivation, Seth Godin writes in his "Stop Stealing Dreams" manifesto that, "The other tool [besides fear] is passion. A kid in love with dinosaurs or baseball or earth science is going to learn it on her own. She's going to push hard for ever more information, and better still, master the thinking behind it. Passion can overcome fear--the fear of losing, of failing, of being ridiculed." Forget being well-rounded. Lets find these kids' passions and let them run with it. Just look at the leading innovators of our time. Bill Gates' passion was computer programming. According to Malcolm Gladwell in Outliers, Gates spent more than 10,000 hours (the average amount of time it takes to master something, according to Gladwell) writing computer programs before he dropped out of college to start his own business. 10,000 hours is a lot of time. No one could accomplish that if the are too busy trying to become well rounded.
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