White teeth

Our educational system is largely built on the distinction between those who learn to “do something” and those who learn to “think what has to be done”.  So we have to find ways how the two can best cooperate to achieve results (something that is lacking in many educative trajectories). A nice example of such cooperation is described in Zadie Smith’s novel “White Teeth” in a scene of two soldiers at the end of World War II, who had lost communication with their unit (and only later learned that the war was already over):

“As far as fixing the radio went, Samad knew how, he knew the theory, but Archie had the hands, and a certain knack when it came to wires and nails and glue. And it was a funny kind of struggle between knowledge and practical ability which went on between them as they pieced together the tiny metal strips that might save them both.”

Fantastic if we could all work successfully in such teams. Even better, if every single person were able to combine thinking and doing. I had the luck to have one professor, who was not only an exceptional social scientist, but also a master optician. But how many of those people do exist?

Perhaps, we shall have more of them in the future. If more work is automated, we may all have more time for education, and more of us would not only do “either … or”, but “and … and” and combine thinking and doing in what we learn and practice.