Battling Ignorance (in Today's World)

There is no evil in the universe which is not the result
of ignorance, and which would not, if we were ready
and willing to learn its lesson, lead us to a higher wisdom,
and then vanish away.   -James Allen


One of the most incredible defining features of our current world is the extreme amount of ignorance to be found among people of all social groups, of all economic groups, of all nationalities.  Unfortunately, ignorance has become a tool for many of the world's politicians, just as poverty has always been a tool.  The politicians understand that if the population is literate, then voters will be able to recognize the lies that politicians regularly use to get elected, and then they more than likely wouldn't vote for the candidate come election time.  The current situation in the United States is due to this dynamic--the quality of education in the States has been declining steadily over the past four decades or so, and as a result, we have many millions of people who are willing to accept lies as truth, and to repeat those lies to others, presenting them as "facts."  They do no research on their own to find out if something is true or not, because it's easier just to believe the people who are lying to them.  Something like Fox News isn't an accident--it's a carefully crafted tool designed to make people think they know facts that support one political party, while simultaneously getting them to hate and fear the "opposition," or those who don't agree with them politically.

So what do we do about this?  In these days when ignorance not only has been institutionalized but also is celebrated, what can we do?  Of course, as with all else we have to start with ourselves if we want to be making our lives all they can be.  We need to educate ourselves, first of all, on the issues that truly matter to us.  We obviously don't need to be experts on virtually everything, but we do need to be able to back ourselves up if we're going to be discussing important issues.  And we need to make sure that our sources of information aren't solely those that we've chosen because we like what they say.  We need to listen even to people with whom we disagree--at least, listen to them until their arguments are proven to be fallacious.  Part of our research can be simply to read a certain amount of news each day, paying close attention to the sources of any information we may use to back up our own arguments.  It's also important that we actually listen to opposing arguments, partly out of respect, and partially to understand exactly what the other person is trying to say.

I will always be ignorant of certain subjects.  I'm not an economist, and I never shall be--but there are plenty of people who are experts in that field, and if I find some that are trustworthy, then I can have a valid opinion on the directions a national economy should go, based on what I've learned from their expertise.  I don't have to have a degree in economics to have a solid understanding of what's going on in the world economically.

We don't want to be ignorant--but we have to make an effort to learn if we're going to be able to say that we're truly not ignorant.  And each of us always will be ignorant of certain things--after all, ignorance is simply not knowing something, isn't it?  The problem that we're facing is that ignorant people are claiming to know things that they truly don't know, and to introduce laws that support their biases and prejudices, rather than make life better for everyone.  And that kind of ignorance is harming many, over and over again.  This is a struggle that has to start by looking at oneself and making sure that we're doing all we can to make sure we're not part of the problem.

View from the Sidelines--A Paragraph a Day

Since I teach high school, I get a very close look at just how students are doing these days.  I became a teacher because I wanted to contribute to the lives of young people, in however limited a way, but I find that no matter how my contribution may grow, it continues to become less and less of a help to the young people with whom I work.  To put it in arbitrary number terms, for example, twenty years ago I might have been able to teach students twenty percent of what they needed to know about their studies.  Unfortunately, though, their needs are rising significantly and quickly, so even if I were to double what I give to students (a feat that isn't possible), I would still be giving them perhaps only ten percent of what they need.  What I mean by "what they need" includes critical thinking skills, basic grammar skills, communication skills, writing skills, reading skills, math skills, and so much more.  Students used to be much better prepared to learn some years ago, but our digital age has produced so many young people who can't even tell time on a regular clock, who can't read cursive, who can't write a single sentence without significant errors, and who can't turn off their phones for even ten minutes, for the most part.  There are, of course, exceptions, but most of my students are poorly prepared device addicts who have been sabotaged by a lack of focus in school, a lack of rigor, and a lack of discipline.  My heart goes out to them even as I try to teach them when they don't even have the most basic of learning or study skills.  I try to teach those to the students, but time is our enemy, not our ally.  For their sake, I sincerely hope that something that we do in school sticks with them so that they're prepared for success in their future.

So Much to Learn--A Paragraph a Day

One of the huge advantages that I find in our current technologically centered world is that some types of information that we spread with that technology can be very fascinating, indeed.  Pretty much anything I want to read is available to me somewhere, somehow, and we have many more people making films than we used to, of all sorts of cultures all around the world.  The improvements made to cameras and microphones make them easy to carry and to use, and this allows for people to film stuff that they never could film before.  I'm teaching a World Studies course in high school right now, and I've made it a video-based course (mostly because no other materials are available to me), and we're able to see videos filmed in some of the most remote regions of Asia, Africa, and South America.  We're able to see what people eat in Tanzania and Bolivia; we're able to go to school with kids in Burundi and Finland; we're able to see what winters are like in Siberia and summers in the Sahara.  I feel as though I've learned more through videos over the last few years than I ever could have previously, and I love that fact.  Of course, I don't want to be addicted to the screen and I make sure that I don't watch TOO much, but it's nice to be able to take advantage of some of this technology and learn as much as I can about my fellow human beings--people whom I'll never meet, but who have a lot to teach me.

A Privilege--A Paragraph a Day

Sometimes my job gets stressful--if you've ever experienced teaching high school or read anything about it, you know that this is true.  Stress is part of this world.  But that's not the end of the story.  There with the stress and the hard times is an opportunity to spend a lot of time with a lot of young people, people who have yet to find their own ways in life but who are doing their best to do so.  I have the privilege of getting to know an awful lot of young people who are facing many, many obstacles, but who still keep on keeping on, who still try their best to accomplish what they want to accomplish.  I get to know them as a teacher gets to know them, and sometimes I'm even able to talk to them about things like what they want to get out of life, what they hope to accomplish with their lives, what kinds of hopes and dreams and aspirations they hold in their hearts.  And hopefully, in a very small way that most of them won't even remember, I'll be able to contribute to their abilities to make those dreams come true.  Perhaps I can teach them study skills or writing skills or communication skills; perhaps I won't teach them anything, but I can help to instill confidence in them, and help them to be able to pursue dreams and overcome obstacles.  My work is stressful, but it comes with an incredible privilege--to share a tiny bit of the lives of some of the young people who will still be here on this planet long after I take my leave.  And that's a privilege and responsibility that I hope to live up to.