Renaissance Men are Myths

Today in AP Art History, we were deep into the High Renaissance, spending time talking about Leonardo da Vinci, when one of my students said “Leonardo was a true Renaissance Man”.

I asked: “Meaning What?”

“Meaning”, she said, “he was good at everything! He could get into any college he wanted to.”

This line of conversation of course made me abandon the rest of my lecture and we set about to answer this question: “Would Leonardo have gotten into college?” Lets look at his teacher recommendation letter.

To Whom it may concern,

I am writing on behalf of Leonardo da Vinci, who is applying to college. Although Leonardo was the most brilliant student I have ever taught, I do not think that he would do well in a college setting. He has worked on several inventive projects in class but he has yet to finish any of his work. I have watched him spend hours and hours working in his sketchbook and staring off into space instead of completing his assignments. When I try to grade his essays, I cannot because his writing is completely illegible. Its the worst handwriting I have ever seen. He almost never follows directions. When he worked as my apprentice, I asked him to complete a particularly important commission and he ruined it by painting in oil rather than tempera like I had requested. Most students that I teach play several sports and take on leadership roles for several clubs. Leonardo does none of this. He spends all of his time drawing fantasy worlds. Some of the other students have even said that he has dissected bodies to draw the inside of human beings. Although he is very smart, he is not to be trusted. He has an arrest record. I highly suggest that Leonardo find a technical career that would allow him to earn a living somehow.

Respectfully,

Andrea del Verrocchio

Would Leonardo have gotten into college? I don’t think so. Is Leonardo a “Renaissance Man”? Not according to our definition. Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael? They were good at one thing at the expense of everything else in their lives. They were innovators. Their resumes were short, their extra curriculars? Negligible. GPAs? They would have been horrible. Michelangelo didn’t even take off his boots during the months he worked on David, let alone dabble in community service. So when did it become essential to be good at everything? Newton, Einstein, Darwin, Bach, sCharles Dickens, Rachel Carson? Steve Jobs? George Lucas? None of these innovators were well-rounded. Innovation takes obsessive study and countless failures. Innovators are passionate about one thing. They are connected to “What will be” rather than “What is”. They dream a lot. They wander. They wonder. They tinker. They did not take 6 AP classes to prove their worth in Math and Science and English and History and Psychology and Chinese…. Innovation takes focus. Free time. Spending energy on solving a problem and finding brand new solutions, researching, staring into microscopes, figuring out fugue structures, rewriting and editing. Free time!

College readiness is dwelling on the “What is” rather than the “What will be”. Its collecting good test scores and proving worth through doing things rather than thinking things. Its learning information that has already been thought of and proving knowledge constructed in the past. Intelligent, eager students are trying to be “Renaissance Men” because colleges demand them. They don’t want innovators. They want achievers.

My students learn about innovators in every subject matter but none of my students study famous “achievers” . There are no famous achievers because achievers don’t enact change. They get into college but they don’t enact change.

The conversation in class was important today. The kids that I teach are very much a product of the environment in which they must succeed. They are pushed to be achievers. They are dissuaded from invention and creative thought. I hope that after they collect all of their trophies and list all of their accomplishments they remember the Renaissance discussion and are left with a spark of something. When they finishing jumping through the hoops perhaps they will have time to enact change just like Leonardo.