I​n The Karate Kid, Daniel seeks out a mentor to teach him karate.  He soon finds himself in a situation where all he seems to be learning from Mr. Miyagi is how to wax his car, paint his house, and sand his deck.  What could be more irrelevant to learning karate.  But, he soon realizes his mistake.  Watch the short video below:

​A popular topic of education reform articles lately is the subject of student engagement.  A common diagnosis for the lack of student engagement is that students are not finding the information presented in class relevant to them.  The proposed solution is often that professors must show students how the subject they’re studying really is relevant.  I disagree!

If students are not finding the subjects they study relevant, then they are not looking for relevance.  Why is it that professors must point out relevance?  What responsibility do students have for making their education meaningful?

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​What is creativity?  Can it be learned?  How do creative people think?  These are some of the questions that Jonah Lehrer looks at in his book Imagine: How Creativity Works.  One insight I think is particularly important and provides a useful argument for the importance of learning as much as you can even if it seems irrelevant to your area of study or your current job.   Creativity requires the mixing of ideas and in order to do this you need to be exposed to many different ideas from many different areas of knowledge.