Do you believe that speical education focusing on a single subject would create a genius ?

Question

special ^ thanks for spotting it!

certainly this question has brought some of the best thought answers I have seen gather in a spot recently :) bravo

you know the really great answers when you see them, much appreciated my friends :)

Answer 1

No, specializing on a single subject would not make you a genius; it would make you a subject matter expert to a degree; but true genius is a gift that can't be recreated.

Answer 2

I think "special" or enhanced education in general will add to the overall knowledge of anyone. As to making a genius? 1. You must have the neurons at birth that automatically make you a genius. No intense education in the world would put you in a "genius" class. Gifted, perhaps. But true genius is rare.

2. Focusing on a single subject would be rather limiting, don't you think? A genius may have an area of interest that is more developed than the average person, but deliberately
focusing on a single subject limits anyone from learning more about the world. Genius means highly intelligent. Intelligence means awareness of MANY things, not just one.

Answer 3

There are examples of specialist schools and academies all over the world and in very different types of country from capitalist to totalitarian. They often nurture performance skills such as gymnastics, musicianship or swimming in order to produce a select few world-class champions. But at what cost are these results achieved?
Is it not more important that a child is raised to be a good all-rounder who interacts well with others and can handle a variety of academic and real life situations? By all means give focused education where it is beneficial to outstanding mathematicians, scientists, singers, acrobats or whatever but do not take away their childhood in the process.

Answer 4

No, I don't. I believe that a program like that would create a person who was extremely smart and extremely good at one thing. That is far from genius, however.

One of the hallmarks of genius is being able to see the connections between one thing and another, and the cause and effect of things in the world. That kind of specialization makes it nearly impossible to create genius. Genius relies on knowledge of a lot of things, not just specialized knowledge in one, narrowly focused area.

As an example, let's just look at physicists. Most physicists have to know enough about mathematics that they could actually be called mathematicians instead of physicists. It's just necessary for them to "get" all the higher math to do original work in physics. However, under your parameters, they would receive instruction in only one subject--either the math or the physics. They would not receive intensive education on both. Since the field is dependent on good math skills, you can see how your idea would fail.

You can also draw the same parallel in an art realm, rather than a hard science realm. You can teach someone all there is to know about literature. I mean, you could have someone who has huge chunks of things memorized, who can both write and speak with ease in iambic pentameter, and who really "gets" it when they read something. However, for that person to achieve some level of competency which can be even near genius, they have to master a lot of other disciplines, as well. They must be good at history, as each piece of literature is a product of a specific historical context. They must be good at mythology, as so much of classical literature refers back to mythology. They should have at least some proficiency in foreign languages, and especially either Greek or Latin, but preferably both. As you can see, they are no longer focusing on one specific subject. They have to broaden their horizons to include other areas of knowledge just to get really good at Literature.

I guess my last point would be simply that genius is not made. Genius is born. I have no doubt in my mind that there are people on this planet who have the specific genius necessary to do some really large and important tasks. Let's talk about finding a cure for cancer. I really believe that there are now and have been in the past people who could, under the correct circumstances, find a cure for the dread disease. The problem is that they have not been born into a situation which allows them to develop their talents and get an education and find out that they have a special gift for understanding the nature of cancer and finding a way to stop it. I am really serious here. For all we know, there's a 15-year-old girl helping raise the family herd in Mongolia who has the necessary tools already in place which would allow her, if she had the education, to make a serious breakthrough. It's just that the life she leads will never lead her down that path to the genius status which could be hers. She will continue helping her family, be betrothed at the proper age, marry, have children, and do all the things Mongolian women do, but her genius will not out because she's not in the proper environment.

The geniuses we know about are considered such because they did have the right circumstances. They did have the opportunities. Most of all, they had the ability to recognize that something was different inside their heads, and that there was a path they should follow. Einstein was a patent officer when he published his first papers, wasn't he? Pretty humble job. However, he had been exposed to the math and physics work of others by reading about it, which allowed him a base to build on. I doubt things would have turned out the same had he been born on a tiny island in the Pacific and been raised illiterate. What I am saying is that he already had the necessary wiring in his head to make him a genius. He then had exposure to the field in which his talents were located. The result was, well, a genius.

The program you proposed is actually similar to a naturally occuring phenomenon: the savant. Savants, like geniuses, are born, not made. Many of them have extreme difficulties in other areas, or are actually disabled in general. But they have a specific area in their brain which is so superbly tuned that they are a genius in one single specific area. If anything, the program you propose would, I believe, turn out savants instead of geniuses. And they wouldn't be real savants--they would, of necessity, simply be, as I stated above, people who are really, really good at one, single, narrowly defined area.

Answer 5

It has been said that keeping a broad mind and doing a wide range of activities in life can help a person approach a problem from different perspectives, leading to a more creative person.

I'm guessing that focusing on one single subject would have a detrimental effect on one's ability to think creatively and also have weaker problem solving skills.

Answer 6

Well I'm still very young so I get alot of home work and stuff (GCSES next year :s) When I get homework I do one subject a night and spend alot of time on each and the results i get back are alot better than when I do alot of homework in one night. So I guess concetrating on 1 subject would make you alot better at it.

Answer 7

Maybe, I think. But can the brain have immense amount of information to obtain? If one individual learns one single subject, that same person can become ignorant of others that shape this world. Yet I think it's possible. Peace!

Answer 8

No. It might help a person become technically proficient, or narrowly specialist, but it won't make a genius.

Genius has to do with "exceptional natural capacity of intellect and creative originality" -- not just knowing a lot about something.

Answer 9

Apparently you need special education in Spell Checking!

Answer 10

No. It can create a over-specialized 'human-machine' with a very narrow area of interest.