In biological evolution, it's very hard to predict which traits will be the useful ones when something hits the fan. This is why most successful complex organisms have a nice backlog of traits just waiting to switch on or off. That genetic storage shelf can come in very handy.
In agriculture, it's cool that one farmer can use advanced techniques to feed ten times more people than he used to, but it's also reassuring that people are using other methods too, and archiving old plant seeds and varieties, keeping that genetic shelf nice and full.
Same for lots of other things, including education. You don't always know which new skills will be the most useful, and you don't know which old ones might come in handy again. Did anyone twenty years ago guess that a valuable skill today would be typing text rapidly on a frigging touchtone phone pad? The only thing I ever used that text for was phone numbers that went "dial 555-AUTO."
It's one reason a "one size fits all" education system is a bad idea. It's like having every farmer in the country growing the same specialized crop.
Off Topic » in reply to Re: Snob, and proud of it.
Adaptation is part of education like it is everything else.
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