I have vague memories of elementary school, and while most of them are positive, I do remember that occasional powerless feeling of having my schedule dictated to me by an all-powerful adult. It sometimes seemed to my childish brain that my favorite subjects were completely glossed over in favor of the unbearable material I couldn’t care less about, leaving me to wallow in boredom and self-pity.
Through the power of retrospect, I now understand that in many situations this was for the best. Children in particular need to be conditioned and prepared for a world where we sometimes have to do things that we don’t want to do, even when we would much rather be doing something else.
But in adulthood, we ought to be given a little more freedom. Yes, we still need to do things we don’t want to do (what else were we prepping for in school?), but as grown-ups, learning needs to have a certain degree of flexibility. I’m talking, of course, about the segmenting principle.
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