Where I can see the human desire to conquer something and master it, I think some of the professional standards used in educational training (especially theatre) are adverse to an actor's process. The theatre, especially when commercial, moves very fast so actors are expected to learn it just as fast. I think this general attitude trickles into the universities and training facilities where it disrupts the exchange of ideas...how possible of a task does it seem to change your way of life when you don't think you can or should?
I also feel that the markets of film and television have influenced the speed at which theatre moves. A movie is hopefully wrapped in 6 weeks, and rehearsals for theatre last about the same. When I spent a semester in England, I learned very quickly that they (Europeans in general) take 2-4 times longer than we do with rehearsals, and I specifically remember being amazed at a rehearsal for Shakespeare that was notched for a 6 month rehearsal and 2 week run.
So why do Americans move so quickly? The only answer that comes to mind is capitalism -but I'm sure it delves much deeper than that. I am reminded of reading that was required in Theatre Games class called Zen in the Art of Archery. In this book a man describes the process of learning archery. To keep it short, the man spends over a year learning how to draw the bow. No shooting, not even nocking an arrow, just drawing the bowstring. His reactions to the task are predictably frustrating and belligerent, but when he recalls the work he says it gave him a higher spiritual bond with the bow.
To me it seems like he was building from the ground up. If you take the time, and I mean really take the time to learn something and then move on to a new skill, you won't have to go back and waste time relearning or spending the rest of your life with a deficiency that could've been solved in the past.
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