Raising “Well-rounded” Children Creates Mediocre Adults
“Time is free, but it’s priceless. You can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it, you can never get it back.” -Harvey Mackay
The single most impactful lesson I’ve learned as an entrepreneur has been that time in and of itself is our most precious commodity. If that’s true, why don’t we view our children’s time the same way?
In the modern age, the education system often emphasizes a broad spectrum of knowledge for children—covering a little bit of everything from history and science to art and literature. Experts say this approach aims to create “well-rounded” adults with an exposure to diverse subjects. However, could the years spent teaching a multitude of subjects be inadvertently robbing our children of the chance to truly excel in any one field?
When I look around at 20 somethings (and older), all I see is mediocrity and trust me, I’m NO exception. It wasn’t until age 26 when I first picked up a book to actually READ it and not to cram for a test.
Why is it that it’s only until around age 20 that individuals are then “allowed” to start specializing in ONE given focus?
I found it more and more interesting when looking in the past…
George Washington
- Age at Accomplishment: 21 years old
- Achievement: Washington led a small force that sparked the French and Indian War by ambushing a French scouting party.
Shubham Banerjee
- Age at Accomplishment: 13 years old
- Achievement: Banerjee developed a low-cost Braille printer using Lego Mindstorms kits, founding the startup Braigo Labs and becoming a young entrepreneur in the assistive technology space.
Emma Yang
- Age at Accomplishment: 14 years old
- Achievement: Yang developed the “Timeless” app to help Alzheimer’s patients stay connected with their families and track their daily activities. The app utilizes facial recognition technology to assist individuals with memory loss.
If throughout history great things have been accomplished (not only by “geniuses”) through the teenage years and younger, why are we delaying this expectation well into adulthood?
Lately I’ve been pondering the opportunity cost in education specifically. Opportunity cost refers to what is lost when one choice is made over another. In the context of childhood education, when children are encouraged to dabble in a multitude of subjects without deeply specializing in any, the cost can be expertise and mastery.
Historically, children often grew up learning specific trades or skills, honing their craft from a young age. Whether working on family farms or apprenticing under skilled artisans, their education was focused and purposeful. This intensive training produced individuals with exceptional abilities in their chosen fields.
Fast forward to today, where information is abundant and easily accessible. Children are exposed to a wide array of topics through school, extracurricular activities, and the internet. While this exposure is undoubtedly valuable, it comes at the expense of depth. A little history here, a bit of science there—it all adds up to a surface-level understanding, lacking the depth and expertise that come from dedicated focus.
Recently I was watching an interview with Nathan Berry which was fascinating. As a former homeschooled kid himself, his mother allowed him to explore any and all interests as long as he got the three fundamentals done in the AM (reading, writing, and math). So what did Nathan do with his free time as a budding teen? Build apps. He taught himself to code, write a newsletter, and eventually built a $200+ million dollar valued email company called Kit all before 30…
If Nathan would have been a dabbler like so many “educated” kids, he’d most likely just know a little bit about Calculus and that Ag equals gold on the periodic table of elements, and so on…
Which brings me to another point I’ve been pondering. Why do we really put our kids in school? Now before you read that wrong, let me rephrase…why even educate them? Like the actual reason, not “Because I want Johnny to be a well rounded individual so he can ‘thrive’ in the real world and be happy.”
If parents were honest with themselves, I believe it’s to:
- Be happy
- But truthfully, to make MONEY.
Money isn’t everything, obviously. There are tons of people who have money and are miserable, but I bet there are even more without it struggling in a variety of ways.
So are we not optimizing for income with our kids at the end of the day? And if so, why the creation of dabblers?
Stats (although yes, they can be skewed in a thousand different directions) show that despite increased educational opportunities, we observe a decline in specialized skills among adults. The ability to excel in a particular area—be it technology, craftsmanship, or the arts is rare. We’re breeding a generation of generalists, equipped with a smattering of knowledge but lacking true mastery.
So, what’s the alternative?
One approach is to encourage a balance between breadth and depth in education. Exposing children to a variety of subjects is important as it fosters curiosity and broadens perspectives. However, alongside this exposure, there should be a deliberate emphasis on identifying and nurturing individual talents and interests from an EARLY age.
And in our opinion, the sooner the better.
For instance, our eldest is only 7, but I’m already starting to notice what her natural bent is towards. She loves reading and is a critical thinker and leader. So rather than stuffing information down her throat about when the pilgrims landed on Plymouth lets say, we spend more of our time learning skills that can develop her character. Here’s an example:
Every afternoon we do a unit study on something to help shape her as a person and for the foreseeable future, it’s developing an entrepreneurial spirit so she’s not at the mercy of a boss for 40+ years of her life. This is one of our biggest goals for her when it comes to education and I believe inevitably we all push our ideals on our kids in the end anyways, but I’ll save that topic for another time;)
A sample schedule looks something like this:
Monday- Learn why failure is the path to success. Study entrepreneurs and specifically focus on how often they have faced rejection or failure.
Action for the day: Try something with the goal to fail. Celebrate the failure.
Tuesday- Get 5 “no’s” from people. Having an extraordinary life means thinking outside the box and not being afraid to ask/demand things for yourself.
Action for the day: Walk up to 5 people who are unfamiliar to you and simply ask for something. ie: Ask for something free at Starbucks, etc. Get used to being uncomfortable.
And so on…
We’ve worked with over 1,000 entrepreneurs throughout the last four years. Some that hit seven figures per month and others who are barely able to break even in their businesses. The single biggest determining factor between the two came down to their beliefs as to what’s possible.
“If you think you can, you can. And if you think you can’t, you’re right.” -Mary Kay Ash
So giving my children an intentional opportunity to think outside the box and go against the norm is critical to the end goal of education for our family. Instead of aiming for a superficial understanding of many subjects, giving them the opportunity to delve deeply into areas that captivate them is what we are looking to do. This might mean allowing more time for hands-on experiences, mentorship programs, or specialized classes tailored to their individual strengths.
While a broad education has its merits, we’ve chosen to be mindful of the opportunity cost associated with it. By prioritizing depth over breadth in areas where they excel, we can empower children to become exceptional rather than average adults who choose to pursue focus well into their adulthood.
Who wouldn’t want a jumpstart on mastery?
*More about “mastery” and what it means for life purpose in this book I highly recommend.