As I See It / August 2005
Ignorance vs. Bliss
There may be a few things women are better off not knowing, like their exact weight or the ingredients of hot dogs. There are some things women can live productive lives without understanding, like how carburetors work or why there’s a light in the refrigerator but not the freezer. And, there are a few unanswerable issues: why men lack the manual dexterity to replace a roll of toilet paper or how settling into a warm bath can cause the phone ring.
But for everything else, there’s no excuse for ignorance.
If ever there was an Age of Enlightenment, it is now. Eighteenth century philosophers who first championed the concept of human understanding based on facts and reason would be in a frenzy today. The kind of information once only the purview of priests and kings is readily available to the least and the best in society, magnified in a million ways, in a million directions.
The accumulated knowledge of thousands of years increases exponentially each day, augmented with new perspectives and incredible discoveries.
There is danger in the enormity of information out there. Every old and new way to inflict pain and cause damage is cataloged in some data base. Too many private affairs are public domain. What we know today, sometimes is no longer true tomorrow.
Greater knowledge carries the burden of greater responsibility and greater vigilance. It would, perhaps, be a vast relief to retreat, to throw up our hands and say “Enough! I don’t want to know anymore”. Ignorance, like evil, has always been seductive.
It would be easy to say, “I know what I know and that’s it.” But that’s like eating crackers on the curb when there’s a feast on the table. To squander the opportunity for understanding is surely as deadly as any of Dante’s seven sins.
Way too many women readily admit their ignorance of math. Yet they need math concepts every day, from ratios and proportions to exponents and even logarithms. Dividing recipes, splitting portions, scheduling hours, all require math understanding. Successful gardeners know soil pH affects plant growth, and the difference between a pH of 6 and 7 is not a little, but a lot, because the numbers are logarithmic. Animal activists must quickly grasp the exponential quality of cat breeding. Whatever skewed socialization occurred in the class room, grown women need math. Living without that basic knowledge is a severe, unnecessary handicap.
There are too many women who simply use the handiest pronoun and verb tense or who write in endless sentences punctuated decoratively at random intervals. Yet, a woman who can read, write and speak the English language correctly will always be hired over one who can’t and promoted over those who don’t. In a country where television and radio are accessible to virtually everyone and education to the twelfth grade is free, there is no excuse for any woman to butcher her native tongue.
Women’s centuries-long exclusion from the scientific professions was a monumental misfortune for mankind. The natural curiosity and intelligence that makes so many women great teachers should have always been employed to benefit the world. But, through fear of failure or just fear, many women still overlook or reject scientific inquiry. It is a colossal waste of potential for the planet, and a tremendous loss of potential income, since women who do accept the challenge have made huge contributions in all scientific fields. But, every woman should embrace the opportunity to explore and understand her universe. If it is how bacteria grows on a dishrag, what makes her child’s eyes blue, or why there are shooting stars to wish upon, what she knows can only help her.
Willfully choosing ignorance over knowledge must be some kind of crime against nature. Whether it is lack of confidence or lack of desire, it is a conscious decision to be dumb. Someone who doesn’t read has no advantage over someone who can’t read. Someone who refuses to learn isn’t even on a par with someone who, by birth or accident, can’t learn. Knowledge is the tool used to build the future.
Women must reach for it. PL
Copyright © 2005-2006 A Woman's View. All rights reserved.
Femme Fair 2006
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