My girlfriend asked me to educate her today. She’s a professional ballet dancer, and committed full time to dance at 15, opting out of academia and going aboard to a ballet school in NYC to pursue a career in ballet.
I asked her where we should start. She said history. I thought this was an excellent place, but then my mind began to wander its way back in time, back to the beginning of history, to first origins. I then realized that the proper way to educate someone on history, might begin in this manner.
1. Philosophy — moreover, the philosophical methods of critical thinking, of asking questions, of challenging assumptions. The essence of dialog, two words, two minds reasoning in concentration to make sense of it all: the beginning of education.
2. Mathematics — the most fundamental process of abstract analytical and perspicacious reasoning, essential for understanding the relations of any and every abstract concept or idea.
3. Physics — How matter came to be, from quantum to classical to relativity to astrophysics which combines them all.
4. Geology — how planets and earth formed and evolved
5. Biology — how life came to be, and evolved.
6. Anthropology — what makes humans, human
7. Sociology — how groups of humans behave
8. Psychology — how the mind of humans develops and operates, as a result of the previous collection of events.
9. History — how humanity makes sense of the past.
10. Spirituality — how the human mind makes sense of the ineffable
I suppose these are all abstract studies which serve to illustrate a comprehensive worldview. They’re not as linear as I would like, but they do provide foundational stepping stones to more composite topics of learning.
To apply this knowledge for creative purposes would require another line of successive steps in education, such as engineering, technology, science, arts, design, and the like.
William Dare 