'Seat time' just as vital as competency in education

We hear about "competency-based" education -- mostly from folks who consider themselves more competent than the rest of us.

They disparage what they call "seat time." To them, "competency" is academic learning, while "seat time" is frivolous waste.

But in real life, seat time is every bit as important as competence. Seat time is doing what you should do, even when you don't want to do it. Seat time is duty time. Seat time is being responsible.

Seat time is getting to work on schedule and giving a full day's effort -- every day. Seat time is attending a daughter's dance recital. Seat time is mingling with neighbors at church, even when you know more than the preacher. Seat time is weeding the garden rather than reading a book about botany. Seat time is serving sandwiches to the homeless without first acquiring a food handler's license. Seat time is spending the lunch hour with co-workers instead of reading the latest self-help best-seller. Seat time is attending weekly meetings of a service club. Seat time is taking the family to dinner instead of taking work home. Seat time is the physician's talking with patients rather than competently doing only what insurance companies demand.

Every good citizen must learn to accept, tolerate and enjoy seat time.

Seat time often involves interacting with others -- in the classroom, at work, in social settings or on the golf course. Seat time is as important for success as competency. For some, it is more important. Education is more than simply "reading, writing and 'rithmetic."

Competency-based education and standardized tests will not make students better citizens, better parents or better workers.

Those who impose competency-based education did not get elected or elevated solely because of competency, although they might like to believe they did. Seat time plays a vital role in most political and business achievements.

Business managers who wouldn't think of telling their CPAs how or what to audit don't hesitate to tell educators how and what to teach.

Seat time is important for everyone, genius or "C" student.

Writing came easily for me. So did calculus and chemistry, history and harmonics, auto mechanics and carpentry. I have written and published five million words. Writing is 20 percent competency and 80 percent seat time. I wrote this column at 3 a.m. when I couldn't sleep because my mind was busy "writing." But the column had no meaning for me or anyone else until I put in several hours of seat time transforming sleepless thoughts into printed words. I think it was Ernest Hemingway who said: Writing is applying the seat of one's pants to a chair. Seat time. Another writer said: Writing is easy; you just sit and stare at a blank piece of paper until drops of blood appear on your forehead.

Seat time.

I like music. I have purchased half a dozen musical instruments, determined to master them. I took lessons from good teachers. I developed certain musical competencies. But I can't play those instruments. Why? Not enough seat time!

Good people balance competence with seat time. Good educators make sure students learn the lessons of seat time along with the lessons of academic competence. Good educators realize the knowledge students learn will soon be forgotten or obsolete, but the habits and values they acquire will last a lifetime.

Competence is important. But confidence, compassion and congeniality are also important. You can't acquire those habits and values from a book.

Take away seat-time requirements and you may have competent workers who never show up on time, can't get along with others and don't know how to compromise for the good of the group.

Life is much more than knowledge, wisdom and competence. Those who believe education should be judged according to academic achievement and a few exams view the world from a simple-minded perspective.

We would produce a better generation of young people if we gave them more seat time, not less . . . if we gave them more guided opportunities to interact among themselves and with outsiders . . . and if we gave them more understanding about the need to balance competency with "seat time."

The next time you hear about "competency-based education," be thankful your own education was not limited by such ill-conceived notions.

G. Donald Gale is president of Words, Words, Words, Inc. He was formerly editorial director at KSL. He earned a Ph.D. at the University of Utah and was awarded an honorary doctorate by Southern Utah University. E-mail: dongale@words3.com.

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