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 My grandparents have the old 1980s set of World Book encyclopedias that I would entertain myself with for hours at a time when I was at their house. I loved volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes, and really any kind of natural disaster early on and did all I could to learn about it. Almost went to college to get an atmospheric science degree lol.
@chevalier26 Those encyclopedias ...
Encyclopedia Britannica ... man that was the end all be all of learning. There were sometimes pictures for stuff. I would sit in front of that shelf for HOURS ... just pouring through them.
My mom would drop me off at the library to get rid of me for a few hours and that was where I learned everything and satisfied my curiosity ❤️