OpEd: A World-Class Work Force for Exploring Other Worlds

I

magine that you are an aspiring professional baseball player striding onto the field at Yankee Stadium for the first time. You have had the best instruction you could have received; all of the baseball superstars have patiently explained the game to you in classrooms, complete with detailed charts drawn on blackboards. But you’ve never actually played the game before

– not in little league, not in the minors

and certainly not in the majors. Chances are you’re going to get booed from the stadium. Classroom instruction can help, but the only way to learn baseball is to play baseball.