While there are many arguments for and against the idea of children going through the schooling system to perhaps specialise earlier on in their educational careers, the fact that specialisation is left as late as possible is suitably justified in my book. There are a number of reasons why specialisation isn’t offered earlier and perhaps even more solid reasons why it should remain that way. This is not to say any opposing arguments aren’t at all welcomed and taken into consideration, but it’s rather a case of it making for a more practical position to leave it until later.

Just to clarify what I mean by specialisation – it’s simply when one takes an educational path down which the subject matter will be more specialised to that path instead of it having more of a general tone to it. So this would mean that if a leaner knows they want to be a doctor already, long before they even get to graduate high school, they’d then already start learning with the use of some educational material which is specific to their chosen field of medicine.

I suppose just by going through that example alone one can perhaps already start to zone in on some reasons why specialisation isn’t ideal too early on in one’s educational career.

Specialised education is expensive

While some level of specialisation in education begins to take shape as learners enter high school (the second or third year of high school when they get to choose subjects), if it was to be the kind of specialisation suggested by those who believe it should be implemented earlier, it would prove to be way too expensive. Simple equipment like a set of microscopes can get extremely expensive, undoubtedly required as a standard part of the needs for specialised education.

Knowledge is dynamic

If mere general knowledge is dynamic in itself then what of specialised knowledge? We live in a world where things change so fast that within a matter of weeks if you haven’t updated your knowledge on a certain subject you may even be an expert in, you risk falling behind and getting shut out by the market going forward. Knowledge is indeed dynamic and if you’ve started specialising at a very early stage, then you will invariably have to deal with the reality of boasting outdated knowledge as it was presented through the textbooks which were printed quite some time ago.

What if there’s a case of having chosen the wrong career?

For some professionals in this world it’s clear as daylight that they’re in the perfect profession, such as how Christopher Simon would probably have chosen the exact same career path if he could do it all over again. Not everyone is so lucky though and even though specialisation in the educational field is generally left until the later years in college, a lot of money is involved in getting the professional qualification which could very well prove to have been a mismatch to the career you’re better suited to.