The phenomenon of why trained (xx) can't do (xx)

I've been noticing this worrying phenomenon that is rather prevalent among students. Unfortunately, it has also happened to me.

I realised that I know nuts about engineering, even though I am supposedly doing engineering. It is becoming very scary, when one of my favourite profs starts asking the LT:"Okie everyone, tell me intuitively how does an inductor work. Anyone?" There's a long awkward silence.. Some brave soul eventually ventures a formula, but no one can really explain it in a way that shows understanding.. (intuitive understanding is quite important, if you have read "Surely you're joking, Mr Feynman!". It's important to build a mental model for your own understanding.)

After talking to another prof of mine that I respect a lot, I suddenly realised fundamental differences between the way he took his education and me. He often asked why about the things that he was taught, and his healthy skepticism for teachers showed. He also dedicated a lot more time than I did studying in his undergraduate years, in his words, " studying day and night, only breaking for sleep and meals." His fundamentals in mathematics, engineering, computational analysis, physics and chemistry are so solid that I am in awe. He is probably one of the few profs that I have ever met that has read through every book that's sitting on his bookshelf. I once wandered into his office and asked him a question that was not within the module that he was teaching. Nonchalantly, he told me to flip to the x-th chapter of the textbook on the second shelf in the middle column. That was pretty amazing (and I found the answer that I needed). (Btw, he's from an European country, not Singapore.)

Can we change the education system? I think we can. We can start by inculcating a habit in kids to always ask "Why" 3 to 5 times about the things that they are being taught in school. Googling is so easy that kids should be able to find what they need and assimilate that knowledge. Another method would be to ask kids to just keep trying to understand something they don't immediately grasp. They can try watching a video, drawing diagrams, reading another explanation.. just don't give up.

Implemented successfully, I think that would collectively result in a 10 - 20 IQ jump across the whole population, which is more than enough to spike a few Nokias in Singapore. =)

Trying to de-school myself, with the limited amount of time I have. Funnily, this is the first time in my life I think I'm actually enjoying the feeling of learning. I'm going "err..." or "Brain-freeze.." a lot more often, but it's quite interesting.