The world in which we live does not consist solely of conglomerations of chemicals and substances. Neither does learning and living consist of merely reading, writing, and arithmetic. To appreciate the world in which we live, we need an general understanding of how it works. Conventional K-12 schools are limited at best, and in a lot of cases colleges do little more. Once we are beyond the school years, many of us consider ourselves done with school - and sadly enough, done with learning. Teachers may teach, but we ourselves are the only ones who can learn for ourselves. Our brains process the information we feed it; how we process the information determines what we learn. Learning only math without learning how to read would severely limit your problem solving abilities. Learning “school” without learning “real life” will render you just as limited.

Being a generalist means you see things in the world connected. What does going to the beach have to do with science? You could study sand, that might lead to studies on erosion, that might lead to studies on different types of rocks, that might lead to the study of how granite was formed, etc etc. Why do you float in the water? How do fish breathe in water? Why does the water look blue? How do reflections work? How does your eye work? Your world is not “school (learning)” and “life”. At least, it shouldn’t be that way.

One key to learning is having an environment in which information is readily available in consumable form; The Generalismo is a blog with the goal of encouraging you to be a generalist by providing information in consumable form and the introduction to methods by which to obtain further information.

It’s about being a generalist!

Posted by Bonnie under introductions, learning