This might be a #FirstCoffeeThoughts post but I really only want to say something briefly about it.
You can't know everything.
Not everything was taught in school.
The only way to know is to ask or to find out and I think we are so used to just existing in the world and taking things for granted that we simply stop asking questions and stop being curious or even surprised.
I love this post that I saw this morning but the comment section was so ... so ... so foul and mean.
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There are times when things occur to me that I didn't even realize that I didn't know ... and I'm legit kind of fascinated. I love that those moments can still happen ...
Just because you don't know something, doesn't mean you're stupid.
I wrote an essay decades ago about one time I had a sudden realization that I didn't know something and it resulted in one of the worst switch whippings I ever got ... bleeding, welts and all ...
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My father asked me if I washed my hands and I had said yes ... and he said "Did you use soap" and I started to say yes and then I asked ... "What is it in soap that makes your hands clean?" ... and honestly I got hit so hard, so fast, it knocked me off my feet and I proceeded to get mauled.
The following Monday (it was a weekend), I asked my 4th grade teacher the same question and it prompted her to create a lesson and she helped me write a letter to Proctor and Gamble about Ivory soap.
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I don't remember how long it took them to respond, but they wrote back and she brought the letter in class and they wrote this elementary school level explanation about how soap is made and the ingredients in it that break down dirt. They even sent samples that we put in the bathrooms.
It was really fascinating and I have, obviously, never forgotten that lesson. This is how people learn things ... when they are taken seriously, when you explain in a way they can understand.
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It's kind of like that saying ... that people don't hate math ... they hate being embarrassed by not understanding math, they hate being made to feel stupid when they struggle with math .... it's not the math, it's the humiliating, sometimes abusive, sometimes traumatizing way that STEM is often taught at early levels. If you don't understand it, you're stupid ...
This is why learning isn't fun for a lot of people. This is why people aren't curious.
@thewebrecluse BINGO! I have always loved learning, and since I was little there has been a huge emphasis on education from my family, especially my grandparents. I loved going on walks with my grandpa to identify different types of trees by their leaves or learn about the morning glory flowers that bloomed early in the day next to our neighborhood fire hydrant (which still fascinate me to this day). Oftentimes, if learning is not cultivated in the home, it will die in the classroom :(
... 𝘪𝘧 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘦, 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘥𝘪𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮 ...
I had a DEEP interest in bird watching and bird identification as a kid. My mom even bought me a bird book ... but if we were out somewhere and I was pointing out birds and naming them she'd make fun of me.
On school field trips though, to the nature center in the town over, they would encourage it and they were so impressed with how well I could quickly identify birds by their markings.
@thewebrecluse The geography nerd in me started young 😂
@thewebrecluse Oh my goodness you just made me remember...my parents and I used to eat at this seafood restaurant called "the Mayflower" when I was 5 or 6 years old. They had wallpaper in the lobby that was like a big atlas map, and when my dad would pay at the counter, I would stand on one of the benches and name off all the countries I knew, especially African countries (something about the phonetics interested me). The cashier thought I was the genius kid from Oprah...😂