ALWAYS BE CURIOUS
‘Knowledge is useful, but school is not’, my son insists, peering over my shoulder as I typed ‘knowledge is’ into Google. He is adamant about this point and knows my thoughts on learning and acquiring information. He is also aware of how much I love books and how I find pleasure in strolling through bookstores and losing hours online as I browse books on Amazon.
I was looking up ‘knowledge is power’, as I remember the saying well from my childhood. Those short, animated programs which appeared in between the cartoons we watched as kids on Saturday mornings in the late 70s and early 80s. The ones from Schoolhouse Rock. A time when there were no smart phones to distract us. No interruptions from those ‘dings’ of text messages or emails coming in. A time when it seemed we had a lot of time to play with friends in real life. Or as kids these days would text to each other, ‘IRL’.
It is as difficult for children these days to comprehend an absence of the Internet as it is for us adults who grew up without the technology to grasp a life without Google to feed our curiosity. In a matter of seconds, we have an abundance of knowledge at our disposal. The ability to look up anything we want to know, whenever the desire to know inspires us. Even if that is at two or three in the morning.
My children will never know the effort of having to thumb through index cards in those long card catalogue drawers at the local or school library, looking for the locations of the stack of books needed to write the many school reports. They will never have to look up a friend’s number in the white pages, calling every ‘Johnson’ in the column, hoping to eventually stumble upon the correct one, without being hung up on. Or to have to look for a business in the yellow pages for their number to call for hours of operation.
Certain things have definitely become simpler, but nothing can take the place of holding a physical book in your hands. I recall the many times my children rolled their eyes at me when I even mentioned books. A tradition I had when they were younger was to give each of them a book as a present for the New Year. Now that they are older, that tradition is not well received as they are not fond of reading. My son reads only because I ask him to do so. I know how important it is for one’s future.
‘How many pages do I have to read?’, he would ask. At that point I roll my eyes at the absurdity of the question. If he can spend hours watching randomness online, scrolling past one TikTok after another at record speed, how can he not spend at least half an hour reading, I wonder. But all is not lost as I have noticed he reads quicker now than before. Perhaps the thought of getting to be on his phone after his required reading has caused him to read faster. Whatever the case, reading is important. Acquiring knowledge is pertinent for growth, for survival. It is important for any and all future endeavours.
As for my son’s assertion that school is not useful, I see his point. School is not known to foster an environment of learning in the sense of acquiring useful knowledge. It is not particularly interested in students questioning the world around them, as much as they are concerned with them memorising random facts which will be forgotten as soon as the test is taken. Teachers seem to take pleasure in enforcing meaningless rules, such as not taking more than four minutes in the bathroom, instead of making learning a memorable experience. Despite that, I believe the most important thing is to question the world around you until you get an answer which satisfies you. Never stop learning and always be curious.
