Kristen Gyles | To be a jack of all trades

Our students have been duped. They have been sold the idea that once they can learn and master any one subject area, they’re good to go. They have been comforted into thinking that whatever their strength is, it will take them where they need to go. And consequently, they feel they have no need to worry about what they are not good at.

The ‘focus on your strengths’ mentality, while encouraging an industrious outlook on the part of some students, can be very dangerous. It has produced top-tier student mathematicians who can’t differentiate between ‘there’ and ‘their’, top Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate English awardees who can’t determine their rightful change when buying lunch from a $500 bill, and most common of all, star footballers who can’t do either.

We have normalised these student profiles because we see them as justifiable results of reasonably focused hard work. And we qualify our expectations by repeating the motto “A jack of all trades is master of none.” Interestingly, the wisdom in this old adage has been lost altogether since it was originally “A jack of all trades is master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one”. Further to this, there is nothing that says that in order for a student to have mastery in some subject areas they must flop in all other areas.

There is nothing wrong with a student having a specific talent or skill, but there’s something wrong with a student making a predetermination against learning other skills simply because they pose a challenge.

TOO AFRAID TO FAIL

The bottom line is this: Students are too afraid to fail, and we are too afraid to let them fail. This is unfortunate, since sometimes failure is simply a part of the process to becoming better at a particular craft or skill. What is not very often relayed to students is the idea that not everyone will have a natural aptitude for certain subject areas or skills, but everyone can learn!

Students must learn that even if they find the subject challenging, they must learn it. The climb will be easier for some, but we all must take the journey. This is a good principle that, when learnt at an early age, will foster an attitude of discipline in any child. Life will not always be easy, but chickening out of everything worth doing won’t make it any easier.

Unfortunately, many parents, and teachers themselves, promulgate this lazy and unwarranted resistance to certain subjects by reinforcing to the student that they are “not good at math” or “not good at physics”; and they believe this is okay because they encourage the child to focus on subjects for which they have great talent. In this day and age, a student has every reason to worry if they don’t develop a basic understanding of math, English, IT or any other core subject taught within the school system.

Without a basic understanding of certain core subjects, students limit themselves to very few career options, and also become significantly less likely to get very far in any field. Parents, who are wiser and more experienced, must explain this to their children and stop facilitating the lazy ‘I don’t want to’ attitude. When parents allow their children to opt out of working hard at certain core subjects, they stunt the academic and professional progress of their children.

EDUCATION IS HOLISTIC

The problem always starts with the student buying into the idea that they are not good. From there it always goes downhill. With the student already psychologically defeated by the ‘I can’t’ syndrome, there is little that can be done to help the student thereafter. Parents must NOT encourage this.

I remember speaking with an older woman some time ago, who, during the one conversation, said multiple times, “My daughter sucks at math, just like her mother.” It was as though it was a badge of honour that the child was wearing. Like mother, like daughter. With that kind of sentiment being drilled in the child’s ears all day, no wonder so many students can’t get ahead.

These same students oftentimes perform just as well as all the other students, but simply suffer from a crippled sense of motivation. We need to stop telling children they are not good at things. Leave them to try and learn.

In order for students to become well-rounded, they can’t adopt a unidimensional view of education. Education is holistic and encompasses various disciplines and fields. It is also not abnormal, in the slightest, for children to master different subject areas simultaneously. We would do well to stop giving students this unfortunate impression.

Kristen Gyles is a mathematics educator. Email feedback to kristengyles@gmail.com and columns@gleanerjm.com.