Cutting Down on Ignorance

The great scientist, Galileo, once made this statement, "I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn from him." When I first read this quote, I couldn't help but chuckle as my initial instinct wanted me to deem this a challenge and come up with a candidate to contradict it. Of course, plenty of us have those moments in which we could easily live under the motto, "Ignorance is bliss," yet I will admit that even individuals who seem to have an elevator that fails to reach the top floor do indeed have some pockets of knowledge and unique experiences they can share, whether the info is worthy to be shared or not. I guess it is all based on opinion as to what is and what isn't.

The other day at the academic institution of my employment, three eighth grade girls proceeded to stick their tongues on a steel pole used to support a basketball goal outside in the frigid conditions. Needless to say, they were stuck in their predicament for a little bit. I was going to be kind enough to try and round up some warm water to help ease their release, yet they had broke themselves free before that was necessary. I am sure they left a piece of themselves on the court that day, and I'm sure a story for the distant class reunions is already etched in some mental stone. The reader might ask, are these girls candidates to contradict, but I will immediately declare they are not. They just had a moment. Supposedly someone told them prior what would happen if they stuck their tongues on the icy metal, but it seems they were not convinced and decided to explore it on their own. Yet, these girls, like most middle school students, are sharp. They have plenty of knowledge to share, as sometimes it is hard to get them to quit sharing it in class. But, one of them told me earlier in this semester that she is aiming to surprise her teachers and get everything turned in on time, and in my class, she is achieving that goal overall. So she is teaching her peers through her actions that it can be done.

I spent some years awhile back serving as a high school special education instructor. Some might say that I could easily find a candidate there, but you know, every one of my special need students could teach me something. One truly struggled to read at a low elementary level, but he could explain the details of a car engine very well. This sometimes makes me wonder if they are truly "disabled" or just wired differently. Not every one is geared to do inside desk work, yet it seems we feel every kid should be for almost twelve years. So I have to agree with Galileo on that statement, but even with the pockets of knowledge contained by everyone, I see so much more potential that does not get used.

The experts in the field of knowledge reception have recently stated that fifty percent of the things we learn, we do so by reading. That means half of what we know, or have stored in our memory, we received it by reading something, whether fiction, nonfiction, biography, newspaper, magazine, etc. The rest of our stored information is received by the other means, such as television or conversing. Now for the scary part, there are a lot of people out there on this planet who do not pursue an interest in exploring the printed material and because of this they are relying on the other means to fill their natural yearnings for intellectual development. So if you look at it in a simple manner, they are only gaining fifty percent (if even that much) of their potential stored knowledge. The key to cutting down ignorance in society is to promote reading. People need to see that adventures can be experienced through this stimulating activity. Every book or article you cover can add new perspectives to you and give you new experiences. Now, Galileo is right in that everyone has something they can teach, but through reading, a lot of people could have so much more they could share.