The other day I was watching my son and his two-year-old son already working together.

My son is turning out to be a great teacher and his student is an eager learner. You can see that he so wants to be like his dad. He also happens to be very competent for one so young and relatively small. But I wonder how much of that has to do with the fact that he is being allowed to be competent. They say there are no bad students, just bad teachers.

In watching this, I have come to realize that this is how skills and knowledge are not only passed along, but advanced. Each generation adds something to the mix and takes it to another level while at the same time maintaining the traditions of the past. At least that's how it should be.

We often hear people saying that someday we may have to return to simpler ways of doing things. But I don't think it's going to be that easy. It might be something of a do over because in many ways, we have broken that chain.

Mastery takes generations. A prodigy may be born but he or she will need the foundations laid by the previous generations to stand upon.

D.D.