Who are best? The text "To Know More about Less or Less about More" poses the difficulty in choosing the best educational approach for modern times, since nowadays is still impossible to define what a well educated person is. In a clear way the author describes how the Specialist and the Generalist approach to education, have been the focuses of discussion since centuries ago, when the Greek poet Archbishops set this issue through the metaphor "The Fox knows many things, but the Hedgehog now's one big one".According to the text, colleges and universities have changed several times their educational proposals, trying to respond appropriately to the social law of supply and demands. He also explains, in a detailed way, that it was believed a generalist could function in multiple fields, but critics contributed to the downfall of this approach. Then, when specialization appeared in education, it seemed to be the best option for people to fit in new Jobs opportunities and also earns more money.Nevertheless, as the author point out, this approach failed too.
As can be seen, even today, this crossroad between both approaches, still continues and as the author sets; "A coherent vision of an educated person in the twenty-first century has yet to be defined" As far as I'm concerned, a well educated person is difficult to define, since knowledge and learning are endless. In fact, I think career choice, should be based on our abilities and personalities.To follow a career because it is currently marketable, could find ourselves becoming incompetent and frustrated. On one hand, being a specialist will make us surely indispensable, because of our deep knowledge about something. Although this may be true, we must remember that our world is constantly changing and, as in the text was explained; we are permanently invaded by new technologies and information.
Under these circumstances, we have to be prepared to survive.To support this idea, the Forbes digital magazine's editorial titled ;"The secret power of the generalists and how they'll rule the future", from October 7th, 2012 , sets the idea that generalists are able to move, adapt and survive in different environments, cultures or systems, while specialists serve to a very specific purposes since they could bring a specialized service. To conclude, we can stay in the generalist side doing everything , offering a lot of services , but doing them well , in a perfect way because those which doesn't stand out at all, belongs to the mediocrity.
