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If you haven’t heard about the 10,000 Hour Rule, you’re probably busy doing what people do, living life on your own terms. But what you may not realize is how this rule affects young people, whether they have one all-consuming interest or not.
Malcolm Gladwell identified the 10,000 hour maxim in his book, Outliers: The Story of Success
Plenty of other circumstances factor into success but it’s worth taking a closer look at what the 10,000 hour rule means for today’s kids. Good news. Those who are homeschooling or attending Democratic schools benefit enormously from the 10,000 hour rule, although not in ways you might expect.
First and most obviously, they have more time to explore their interests. They don’t spend hours every day on the school bus, standing in line to change classes, listening to instructions/attendance/announcements, doing rote schoolwork, and then completing homework in the evening. Even highly academic homeschooling families find that a full load of “schoolwork” can be completed in substantially fewer hours than the average school day.
That leaves plenty of time to pursue real interests. Long hours every day can be lavished, if a child wishes, on building expertise through direct experience in video game design, creative writing, chemistry, speed skating, cello playing, sculpting, astronomy, cake decorating, computer animation, or any other area.
It’s not difficult for a young person, free from the time constraints of conventional schooling, to spend 10,000 hours in an area of passionate interest. Let’s look at the numbers. The average school year in the U.S. is 180 days (pretty similar in most of the world) with an average school day of 6.7 hours. Thus children are unable to pursue their own interests and learn in wider ways for a minimum of 1,206 hours a year. Even if we don’t count kindergarten, that’s 14,472 hours by the time they’re 18. And we’re not even adding time necessarily spent on travel to and from school, prepping for the school day in the morning, and doing homework after school (although we know these obligations probably add another hour or two each school day).
Sure, school kids engage in all sorts of worthy pursuits in their spare time. But homeschoolers and students in Democratic schools have a lot more spare time. These young people can accumulate the requisite 10,000 hours quite easily by their mid-teens, putting them on the fast lane to Big Time Success in exactly the field that makes them feel most vibrant and alive. If they choose.
But what about the homeschooled kids and students in Democratic schools who don’t have a single all-consuming interest? A girl might like to read sci-fi, go horseback riding, play soccer, and teach the dog tricks. A boy might drift from one pursuit to another, avidly creating his own graphic novel, then becoming passionate about parkour. Should these kids choose one thing in order to accumulate the all-precious 10,000 hours?
Absolutely not. They’re already putting 10,000 hours into the exact skills that more widely define success.
That’s because their daily lives are filled with self-directed and meaningful learning. Of course, depending on the style of homeschooling, it’s obvious that many kids will spend time doing some rote educational tasks. But nothing approaching15,000 hours. Instead they’re accumulating more useful and accessible wisdom honed by experience. How?
~Thousands of hours spent feeding their own curiosity, becoming well acquainted with the pleasure of finding out more. This develops eager lifetime learners.
~Thousands of hours exploring, creating, building friendships, making mistakes, taking risks and accepting the consequences (what’s ordinarily called play).This develops innovative thinkers.
~Thousands of hours spent shouldering real responsibility and connecting with role models through chores, volunteer work, and spending time with people of all ages. This develops self-worth based on competence and meaning.
~Thousands of hours pursuing interests, in whatever direction they take, building proficiency through direct engagement. This develops mastery.
~Thousands of hours reading, contemplating, conversing, asking questions and searching for answers, looking at the bigger picture from different angles, and discovering how people they admire handle challenges. This develops maturity and strength of character.
Gladwell reminds us that 20 hours a week for 10 years adds up to 10,000 hours. Filling those hours meaningfully? That’s no problem for self-directed, endlessly curious learners. Chances are, they’ll grow up to redefine success. Who knows what today’s young people, raised to think deeply and freely, can bring to the future?
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This article was first published in Life Learning Magazine, Sept/Oct 2011.
Indeed. And the book “Talent is Overrated” came out about the same time and came to same *10,000 hour* conclusion.
Came to the same conclusion about 10,000 hours, but not that these hours can be seen in a wider way! In fact the way any of us approach our lives can be a way of accruing those 10,000 hours, perhaps building mastery in careful analysis or wit or compassion or any combination of positive traits. Of course we can also practice negative traits, making us very skilled at those things that come too easy—impatience, laziness, gossip, well you get the idea.
I read that book and a couple of others on the same subject, including Talent is Overrated. And I’ve seen the proof in my own child’s life. She has become outstanding in her sport simply because she put in the hours. However, one thing I wonder is, how do talent and inclination intertwine? Almost no one is going to be motivated to spend all those hours developing skills if they don’t have a certain amount of talent or ability to keep them going. So I think it’s complex. Also, I know some champions in my child’s sport who started when they were much older and somehow just clicked into genius with very little effort. But I definitely see that the 10,000 hours are a priceless gift you can give a child who wants to follow a certain path.
I’ve wondered about that too. Surely it includes a mix of opportunity, inclination, and eagerness to persist. If your daughter had been born in a country where her particular sport isn’t played she might very well have become outstanding in a similar sport, or used her persistence and talent in some other avenue.
I wrote two similar posts about the 10,000 rule and Gladwell’s book. You can find them here – http://christinapilkington.com/2011/12/07/the-secrets-of-expertise/ & here – http://christinapilkington.com/2011/12/10/how-children-can-invite-opportunities-into-their-lives/. I like how you talked about even if the 10,000 hours aren’t focused in one area, kids learning at home will become experts in so many of the skills that leads to sucess in life regardless of their particular areas of interests. I also talked about how I disagreed with Gladwell about the role luck plays in the lives of sucessful people. I agree there is a little something to that, but I argued in the post that most sucessful people have invited opportunity into their lives – creating their own “luck.”
Great posts Christina! I agree, we invite opportunity. But I think Gladwell’s point about luck, if I remember from reading the book when it first came out, also had quite a bit to do with timing. The world was ready for what the people he profiled had to offer. History is full of people who made amazing contributions in all sorts of fields yet they were ahead of their time, or stymied by racism/sexism/classism, or simply didn’t have the personality to garner attention, so their efforts were ignored, often until after their deaths. Thanks for sharing your posts!
While I am not really a fan of Gladwell and the way he approaches many topics, I think this is a great post about the 10,000 hour idea and how home education can provide children with so much extra opportunity in this regard. I also like how you focus on how this doesn’t have to be explicitly devoted to specific skill to be beneficial.
I had never translated those 10,000 hours into valuable skills like self-directed learning etc. What an insight! That gives me a whole new way to think about the spare time my kids do or don’t get.
When I first heard of his book, I totally thought of home educating families! I really enjoyed your post here. I see how this is working already in our young children’s lives with how they are following their interests most of the day, and it is very true, they can master their activities now very efficiently and effectively through the kind of and amount of time available to them through our home education…and it makes me excited for the coming future!