Does education make you jaded?

[Rusty Hills Farm]

Now I haven't read all the responses, so if I am repeating anyone, I apologize. I don't think education makes you jaded. People who are willing to put forth the effort for an education tend to carry that willingness with them into everything they do.

Far too many people are basically intellectually lazy. They aren't willing to make the effort that thinking takes. It's too much hard work. It's why they schlumped through school and took the easiest courses they could find at community college or limited themselves to just courses about their trade/field.

They also do not seem to have the backbone to stand against the crowd. Which is natural, in a way. Sad but natural. There really are not many leaders in the world. Most folks ARE followers, which kind of goes hand in hand with not liking to think. When you follow, you don't have to bother with the scary part of forming your own opinions, which in turn might not agree with the opinions held by everyone else. There's a scary thought!

BTW, I'm a guy and I personally cannot deal with wishy-washy people. I LIKE people who can own an original thought or two. And (gasp!) they don't even have to agree with me! I respect opinions that are well thought-out and do not rely on cliches.

 

[1stepcloser]

Quote:
That was a nice and thoughtful post...a breath of fresh air ~ some of the other forums I frequent really don't understand the South.

You mentioned clay ~ are you in Georgia?

I have to agree. I arrived down here with a whole host of biases and stereotypes in my head. And yup, some have been true but then again stereotypes tend to sprout from a grain of truth. It is when it is applied to everyone it becomes not fair or accurate. I am really learning to like the South and the Southern folks and when I shut up long enough ( a personal challenge of mine) I really end up learning some stuff. LOL

 

[CheepSunglasses]

"Far too many people are basically intellectually lazy."

Sure, some are. But I think there is another element to it. When you start asking those hard questions, you may not get an answer that fits very comfortably with your view of the world and you may have to make a decision. Does the evidence before you make good logical sense but conflict with values you have had since childhood? Is the answer most likely to be true one that frightens you? Then, there is what psychiatrists call "cognitive dissonance," which is the defensive (or angry) reaction you sometimes have when you hold a belief or have taken a course of action and are then presented with conflicting evidence (look at the current political climate for an example). All of these put people outside of their comfort zones. Even if they have the intellectional capacity to question, they may be uncomfortable with the answers. Your point about having backbone is well taken.

I think academia teaches us to better handle those kinds of challenges to our beliefs. I used to think that if I stayed in school long enough, I'd know just about everything. Mostly, I learned how much I don't know. But it made me a lot better at admitting that I don't

.

 

[GrayDragon]

Quote:
Ignorance and stupidity are annoying, aren't they???

I can understand being ignorant. Sometimes you just haven't been exposed to the knowledge of a certain subject. As an example, I'm still fairly ignorant regarding raising chickens, as my first hand experience in the actual raising of chickens is pretty non-existent.

I can understand being stupid. Some people just aren't smart, and that's okay. Some concepts are hard to grasp and not everyone can handle things like higher math and astrology. And some folks have aspects of their brain that don't quite work right. As an example, I can rarely remember dates. I can tell you what a particular battle meant to a war, but dang it if I can tell you even what year it occurred, let alone what date. When it comes to dates, I'm stupid. I've forgotten my own birthday before.

But what I don't get is people who are proud to be ignorant and stupid. They are capable of learning and have the opportunities, but choose not to utilize them. As an example, no matter how much evidence I have presented over the years, my cousin is still convinced she cannot get pregnant if she does jumping jacks after-wards because, hey, it's apparently worked for her so far and everything else is just a big pharmaceutical conspiracy.

That kind of willful ignorance I just don't get. I don't understand people who get their opinions from talk show hosts rather than do some research themselves, and continue spreading the same misinformation. And I'm not stereotyping here, people do it on all ends of the religion/politics spectrum, and it's irritating with all of them.

It's like people who say 'Dog people are all purple'. Well, so happens I know a few dog people, and they are a variety of shades but tend more towards green. And when I try to point that out, I'm just written off as a dog-lover engaged in wishful thinking. Because apparently, it's impossible to like both cats and dogs.

Bah.

 

[Royd]

Sorry, but I've got to do this......Did you misss the class on proofreading, or using spell check?

C &D high school grad, here.

 

[GrayDragon]

Quote:
I have conversed with enough people for whom English is a second language to think that one's grammar and spelling are indicative of intelligence.

The smartest man I know is dyslexic.

 

[CheepSunglasses]

Drat. Do I have to go correct all of my stimakes?

 

[GrayDragon]

lol wut? u r 2 funny.

 

[wombat]

As for being jaded, I think I understand what your professor meant. Education teaches you critical thinking, and once you start asking hard questions, you start getting uncomfortable answers. I have found that the things I used to have faith in as constants- the functioning of government, our place on the world stage, the "rightness" or "wrongness" of convictions I once held deeply, are not as I understood them. The world went from being black and white, good and bad, to gray and complicated. The one thing I still have confidence in is intention.

That is why you're not jaded. You choose to not give up on the human race even though you see the world's complexities and realize that there are no easy answers.​

 

[CheepSunglasses]

I can't always spell AND I am chicken stoopid. Now, see how easy that was?