"Nothing truly novel comes from established knowledge alone. Most textbooks don’t prepare one for fresh approaches. They leave out the leaps of faith"

"Nothing truly novel comes from established knowledge alone. Most textbooks don’t prepare one for fresh approaches. They leave out the leaps of faith that lead to true breakthroughs." - Lyall Watson Elephantoms

When I was at school and especially at university I was never that keen on my textbooks. When I received the book I would always go through it and look for some cool sections that I thought would be interesting to study when the time came. Then at the end of the year I would realise that those sections were always the one's left out by the lecturers as not too important. That is one of the reasons I did poorly I think, that accompanied with my atrocious hand writing and mind that was prone to drifting away from the topic at hand, seem to have put a handbrake on decent grades.

I actually often thought that the books that I was reading outside of the curriculum were far more beneficial. Even a novel like 'THE CARIBBEAN' - James Michener or 'THE POWER OF ONE' - Bryce Courtney, taught me so much more about a time in history, a part of the world and how things unfolded, than any history lesson could pretend to be teaching. I suppose these days with the so called 'Internet', text books have become a lot less relevant in education and those leaps of faith mentioned above in the quote are a lot easier to materialise. Not ideal for those parents, teachers and leaders out there that like to mold youngsters into their own idea of ideal or worthwhile individuals.

Hopefully with the parameters of control having been lifted in a broader sense over the years more people will be encouraged for those leaps of faith. If they are taken in a direction derived from the individuals own inspiration they will surely be fresh and worthwhile.

Post Script: Lyall Watson died earlier this very month. A naturalist and extraordinary author of some of the best books that I have ever been fortunate enough to read. Books that has inspired leaps of faith for my good self.