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.

From Whom Can I Learn?

If someone is able to show me that what I think or do is not right, I will
happily change, for I seek the truth, by which no one was ever truly
harmed.  It is the person who continues in their self-deception
and ignorance who is harmed.     -Marcus Aurelius


What Marcus says here would not be received well by many people in the 21st-century United States.  Somehow, many people in this country have completely shut out the possibility that someone who disagrees with them may actually be right, so when we're wrong, we become "the person who continues in their self-deception and ignorance."  We won't even consider the possibility that someone we disagree with could teach us something, so a huge portion of the population, for us, is eliminated as a possible source of learning.

What has happened to the concept of having an open mind, of listening to others--no matter what their background--to see if they know something that we don't know, to see if they can teach us something?  Having an open mind means listening to what another person says without putting it through the filters that we so often employ:  What is their political party?  What is their gender?  What is their race?

And on and on.

If we want to live our lives fully, it's very important that we learn from virtually anyone.  That doesn't mean that we have to approve of their paths in life or of decisions that they make--it simply means that we hear what they say and weigh in our minds whether it makes sense or not, whether there's something to learn there or not.  If someone gives me good advice but I ignore it because of whom he voted for in the last election, then I'm going to limit myself and miss opportunities because I've been judgmental about another human being.  I can blame it on his or her vote if I want to, but the truth is that the fault lies with me and my unwillingness to listen.

What Marcus is talking about is our tendency to not want to be told that we're wrong.  If I were to take something that isn't mine, for example, and the guy next door told me that it was wrong to take it, would I respect his opinion more if he voted for the same person I voted for?  Because the truth of the matter is that my action was wrong, no matter who tells me so.  But if I can dismiss what the person tells me because I don't agree with him on politics, or because I know he's a racist, or because I know that he's done something wrong himself, then I'm losing out on an important learning experience.  And really, all we have in life is our learning--the only way to improve ourselves as human beings is to learn more about life and living, and people we agree with or respect aren't the only possible teachers out there.

Criticism is often much easier to take when it comes from someone we know and trust.  We tend to be more willing to listen to people who have a track record of supporting us rather than putting us down or arguing with us.  But we really should be able and willing to listen to everyone who has something to say about what we do.  And once it's said, then we can decide whether the words are meant to help us or to hurt us, if the words have been constructive or destructive.  And once we've figured that out, it's up to us to take the words to heart or to reject them, to make changes based on what we've heard or to continue on in the same ways as before.

My self-deception helps no one, and it can cause a lot of harm.  Some of the most important things that I've learned in life have come from people I didn't even like, especially in the form of teachers at all levels from grade school to college.  The teachers I've liked have taught me a great deal, but so have the teachers I haven't liked at all.  If I'm doing something very wrong, I hope to be told so, so that I can make some changes that will allow me to get things right, and that will thus allow me to help others more often and more effectively, which is, after all, my main purpose for being here (at least, that's what I believe it to be).
  
  
  

   
   

Three and a Half--A Paragraph a Day

I had a wonderful opportunity last night:  my wife and I babysat for two little kids, twins, who are three and a half years old.  My wife knows them very well, as she nannies for them three times a week, but I had met them only twice in passing, so I didn't know them as well.  But for me, the chance to spend a few hours with a couple of little kids is always a wonderful opportunity.  And we did have a wonderful time.  We played hide-and-seek, we drew pictures, we ate dinner, we talked, my wife and I read to them--it was simply a great time.  Tiring, a bit, but great.  Little kids, if we treat them well, have so much to teach us.  They enjoy life for exactly what it is, they show their joy, they express themselves honestly (such as at bedtime, when the girl wanted her mommy because she wasn't used to going to bed without her mother around).  Her crying didn't last long, though, because she found something better to do--reading to her dolls in bed, until she fell asleep.  To me, time spent with little ones is always a blessing, especially when they're really nice little kids (and most are) as these were.  I read to the boy until he couldn't hold his head up any longer, then my wife carried him to bed, where he crashed.  If you ever want to reset things, to see the world in a different way, to feel more of the love of and passion for life, do yourself a favor and spend a little time with a very little kid, and don't try to order the kid around--let them be who they are, and learn from who they are rather than trying to make them learn what you think they should learn.

What Came before--A Paragraph a Day

I'm teaching Spanish now, and unfortunately, many of the students have a very difficult time of learning the language.  One of my classes is Spanish 3, and one of the things that I find out rather consistently is who the students had for their Spanish 1 teacher.  Many of the students took Spanish in middle school, and many of them had a certain teacher who I know demands almost nothing of his kids in class.  His own Spanish is rather mediocre, and he's happy just to throw a worksheet or two at the kids to keep them busy for the time they happen to be in his classroom.  And I get them in my classes later, in high school, only to find that they're sorely lacking in the knowledge and skills that they really should have if they want to study Spanish 3.  I have to be lenient, though, because I know that their learning was sabotaged by a teacher who didn't challenge them or guide them through the process of learning the early steps of this particular language.  And I try to remember that I could apply this approach to almost everyone in every situation--someone could be bad at relationships because of what came before; someone else could constantly say inappropriate or insensitive or even rude things because of what came before, another person could be afraid of taking risks or taking on challenges because of what came before.  If I maintain my sensitivity and compassion, I can refrain from judging people harshly because I usually have no idea what came before, and my harsh judgment now may end up being "what came before" later, when they would be much better off having memories of my helpfulness and encouragement, and my efforts to help them to learn and perhaps even make up for some of the time they lost with what came before.

Introspection--A Paragraph a Day

The philosophies of the wisest people that ever existed are mainly derived
from the act of introspection.    -William Godwin

This quotation is rather hard to accept, to be honest.  After all, most of us see wisdom as something that we gain from other people who have lived longer than us, or who have had more varied experiences than us.  But what William is saying is that our wisdom comes from inside of us, not from outside.  It comes from turning our thoughts and attention inwards and finding out just what we know in life, just what we've learned from life.  It comes from our own experiences and our own thoughts about those experiences.  We've learned in life, to be sure, but how often are we willing to pay attention to that voice inside of us that tells us what we know rather than picking up a book and finding out what someone else knows?  I think that we convince ourselves that it's necessary to be humble, that if we trust ourselves to teach ourselves wisdom, we'll be arrogant somehow.  But perhaps we're wrong--perhaps turning inside and trusting ourselves isn't arrogance at all, but the most important thing we can do.  Perhaps we're more aware than we give ourselves credit for, and perhaps we've learned much, much more than we think we have.  I'm doing my best to try to trust myself for insight and wisdom, for I know that I'm a fairly smart person and I've had a lot of experiences that should have taught me many wonderful, valuable lessons.  When I'm able to turn those lessons into a wisdom that can help me and help others, then I think I'll truly be on the right road.  Where that road leads, who knows?  But I would like to be on it.

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.

They Like to Be Challenged--A Paragraph a Day

Teaching is a particularly frustrating art, mostly because it's so often impossible to choose who your students are.  So many young people these days are being raised to shy away from challenges that it can be very frustrating to try to teach them in a classroom, because they don't respond well at all to being asked to better themselves, to learn more, to improve their skills.  But what I find to be a pretty common phenomenon is that once I do start to challenge them, once I do start to ask them to be better than they were yesterday, they respond quite well--most students really want to get better, and they're simply hoping that someone will help them to improve their skills and knowledge.  I know a lot of teachers who really never ask young people to do any difficult work, thus dooming them to stay at their current level.  But when we ask them to stretch their limits and offer them a safe place to do so--free from ridicule and mocking--they find within themselves the resources they need to get better at what they do, to improve both their knowledge and their skills.  If we want people to be better, Goethe said, we have to treat them as if they already are the people they have the potential to be, rather than dooming them to mediocrity by only expecting them to perform at levels that they've already reached.

Not Teaching Skills--A Paragraph a Day

One of the things that constantly amazes me in school these days when I'm teaching is the extremely low number of students who take notes.  It's like it's a skill that's completely died, and that obviously isn't being taught to young people any more.  Unfortunately, it's one of the most effective strategies that one can use to actually learn the material that's being covered.  Sitting there and passively hearing what's being taught is not a good way to actually learn it--when one doesn't write things down, it's much more difficult for the concepts to make their ways into our long-term memory rather than our short-term.  But teachers don't seem to be putting any effort into teaching the study skills that help the kids to learn to learn; instead, they focus on the information that's possibly going to be on a standardized test, information that is simply learned by rote almost, rather than skills that can help them to be successful in many ways.  I keep insisting that my students at least take notes because I know that they need strategies for internalizing those things that they learn, and that they're not getting much of that in their other classes.  Some of us teach because we want students to learn how to learn so that they're more likely to succeed in the future when we're not around any more, and I'm willing to let them get a little annoyed at me now for insisting that they take notes.  Because after all, if I don't insist now, there's a very good chance that they'll actually learn this skill too late for it to make any positive mark on their educations or their lives.

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.

Experience: A Wonderful Teacher--A paragraph a Day

I think we all wish we could erase some dark times in our lives.
But all of life's experiences, bad and good, make you who you are.
Erasing any of life's experiences would be a great mistake.   -Luis Miguel


It's fascinating how life works.  I had thought that things had settled down a bit, that I was going to be able to go for a certain amount of time without anything drastic happening, but then some members of my family decided to dash that thought to tiny little pieces.  And over the summer, a very negative and difficult time played out in my life.  But I made it through, and I did my best to keep reminding myself that no matter how difficult things got, other people have much more difficult problems to deal with, and I was being exposed to an opportunity to learn through trial, and it was a trial that definitely wasn't going to kill me or destroy any part of my life.  So I made it through and I learned a lot, all because I was pushed into a situation in which I ended up learning a lot about my family and myself, and which brought back a whole lot of childhood issues, many of which I'm afraid were never fully processed--so I have the chance now to process some of the things that could have been processed decades ago, had I had any support at the time that would have allowed me to do so.  I like Luis' words here--our experiences make us who we are.  We learn from them, or we don't.  I would add that our responses to those experience play a great role in how much or just what we learn, but this passage is just as good without my addition.  What are you going through right now?  What did you go through in July, or in the spring, or in the winter?  What did it teach you?  Did you learn those lessons and take them to heart?  It's important that you do so because life gives us ways to learn all the time, but it's up to us to learn from them or not, to see their value or to let them harm us.  I prefer to learn from my experiences, as the more I learn, the more I grow more fully into the person I'm meant to be.

New Trials--A Paragraph a Day

 I generally hope that things are going to go well in any given situation, but experience tells me that this won't always be the case.  Sometimes, things turn out pretty poorly, and when they do, it's up to us to make the most out of a poor situation, so to speak.  I'm in that situation now, for example--I was hired at the school I'm at to teach Spanish, an area of expertise in which I have a lot of experience and training, and in which I'm quite competent.  We also have very good resources available to us for teaching Spanish, so I have plenty of materials for class.  Unfortunately, though, it turns out that I'm teaching only one Spanish class and three other courses that I've never taught before, and for which I have no resources at all.  In other words, I'm preparing every class from scratch, trying to scrape together materials and make a semester work for the students.  This is an incredibly stressful and time-consuming situation, to say the least.  So what do I have to do?  I have to do the job, of course, or leave the school--which would leave a whole lot of students without a teacher.  And when I do the job, I have to try to keep focused on the positive when I can find it.  I have to try to remember always that what I do, I do for the students, not for the administrators who have put me into this awful situation.  I have to try to find ways to make myself look forward to going to school rather than dreading it, and to look forward to preparing classes rather than hating the process.  If I don't make this shift in perspective, I'm in for a miserable semester, and who wants that?  How things turn out over the next few months really is up to me, and I'm not the only one affected--my students, also, will know if I'm miserable or if I'm enjoying the work that I'm doing.  And they don't deserve to have me at my worst as a teacher.

Another School Year Comes to an End--A Paragraph a Day

It's no wonder that there haven't been as many paragraphs a day for the last couple of weeks--after all, we've been in the last couple of weeks of our school year, and most of my focus has been on ending the year well.  For me, ending the year is different than it is for most high school teachers.  I try to end on an academic note, keeping students focused on the topic on hand until the very end, not worrying about having parties or showing movies or anything like that.  We spent the last couple of days reviewing for the final, then we had the final.  After all, my job isn't to be best buddies with my students--rather, my job is to help to prepare them for the future by exposing them to some academic rigor that actually demands something from them, including focus and work and effort.  I find that most of my students appreciate the fact that I'm one of the few teachers that actually demands some effort from them, for they find that they learn more when they're asked to push themselves.  They also find that they have abilities that they never dreamed they had when they're pushed to levels that they haven't been pushed to yet.  And don't worry--I'm not super strict on grading.  They get pretty generous grades from me, but only after they've pushed themselves and found themselves worrying about their grade.  After all, when we worry about something, we tend to be willing to push ourselves even harder to avoid negative outcomes--and I find my students pushing themselves constantly to improve themselves and their performance.  And that, of course, is what's going to help them more in the long run than anything else.

Can We Teach Kindness?--A Paragraph a Day

Kindness is often on my mind when I'm teaching high school students.  It's one thing to teach things like English and Spanish and Literature, but it's something altogether different to try to teach young people to be kind to one another, to show each other compassion and understanding.  Most young people do their best to be good people, of course, but it's very tempting for them to say those words that will make someone laugh, but hurt someone else.  It's easy for them to be inconsiderate--or perhaps it's difficult for them to be considerate when their main focus in life is currently themselves.  It comes with the age, doesn't it?  They're growing and learning and trying to do the best they can in everything, but they're still self-centered.  So how do we teach kindness?  Honestly, I don't really try because I'm not sure that something like that can be taught.  I do model it every chance I get, which is almost all day, every day, but I don't look at it as something that I can teach to someone else.  Rather, I make sure to point out the negative results of unkind words and actions, and I leave it to them to learn it rather than thinking that I can actually teach it.  After all, they have to want to have the positive results of being kind in their lives, and the best that I can do, I think, is to help them to see clearly the positive results of kindness on one's own spirit.  I don't know how effective the lesson is, but I believe that they can learn to be kind by wanting to feel the positive feelings that come from having been kind to someone else.

The Kid Inside--A Paragraph a Day

After a while the middle-aged person who lives in her head begins to talk to her soul, the kid.
-Anne Lamott


It seems that the older I get, the more I'm in touch with memories from my childhood.  Recently, tons of memories that hadn't surfaced for decades have started to make their ways into my conscious mind, and I can guarantee you that it's quite strange.  I'm remembering long-forgotten things that seem to be almost the life of a stranger, separated as I am from my childhood by at least five decades.  But when they do come back, they're strong and they're clear, and they make me realize just how much trauma I actually underwent all those years ago, and they help me to understand some of the many issues that I still have to face in my daily life.  They help me to see why I fear this, why I'm hesitant to do that, why this bothers me so much, why that gets me so angry.  And more importantly, they help me to see that that young person who I was is still a very important part of who I am, and that I should be treating myself with love and compassion because that young person didn't deserve to have that sort of trauma pushed into his life in the first place.  It's important that I accept him as he was without judgment, and that I love him unconditionally and allow him to influence some of the many decisions that I make every single day.

Learning Something New--A Paragraph a Day

So far, I'm failing pretty miserably at posting a paragraph a day here.  That's okay, of course--the world will keep spinning and moving through the solar system whether I write a paragraph or not--but it is a good lesson for me.  I'm learning just how easy it is for me to get caught up in day-to-day life and forget to do something like a paragraph online, whether I made that promise to myself or not.  I'm also seeing very clearly just how quickly quite a few days can pass.  It doesn't seem possible that my last paragraph was four days ago, yet that's the truth of the matter.  It helps me to gain a sense of perspective, and to sympathize with other people who are having a hard time meeting deadlines or getting things done on time--especially my students.  Personally, I've always been pretty good at making sure that things get done and at meeting deadlines, and it's kind of surprising to me to see my performance at this particular task.  But now I get to see if I'm actually learning anything or not.  Will February be just like January, or will I be able to do better at fulfilling this resolution?  Will I take something from these lessons and do better and treat other people with more compassion because of what I'm learning from my experience?  Here's hoping that even though I certainly have NOT written a paragraph a day despite making a resolution to do so, I'll get something from this experience that will help me to become a better and more compassionate human being.  We'll see!