A Broad Curricula

Within the organizations that touch our lives (work, school, community) there are people in three groups:

1. A small number that excel, because of talent or plain old hard work (frequently a bit of both).
2. Another small number who have great difficulty, for a variety of reasons.
3. In between, a big group that just show up reliably, and do a good enough job.

Given this reality,why are people often required to participate in many tasks? Why not leave them to the work they enjoy best and have the easiest facility with? This is the students continual refrain: "Why do I have to take ...? It has nothing to do with my major, I am not good at it, and I will not use it in the future." One might hear the same at many companies: "Why must I work in different departments? I only want to do..." It is largely true that we do best at those things we enjoy most. And it is a good argument for doing what you love. Exposure to other areas, however, has several important benefits.

When you are required to do something different from your natural inclination several things occur. You get to see a different viewpoint, to learn other ways that problems are approached. You explore the edges of your abilities, perhaps extending them, perhaps clarifying them. You learn what kinds of other people excel in the areas that you do not - and those that do poorly where you excel. You better appreciate the complexities of other peoples work.

A Human Resources professional may never need to do math or science. But they may need someday to hire people to do that work, and to help them fit in to the culture and succeed. Designers may never need to do engineering, and Engineers are not expected to create aesthetic perfection, but understanding the complimentary processes will make projects proceed more easily.

Today, specialization is the norm, each person locked in a very narrow slot, working with people in the same specialty. It is true in computer science, medicine, humanities, design, and engineering. This is not a bad thing, it just tends to lock us into certain viewpoints. A broad curricula opens up new possibilities for progress.