This morning I (almost) was unable to stop my tears. Yes, at a breakfast with friends the subject of education and knowledge popped up...and somebody asked which one was the capital of Portugal. Only two people had the correct answer. Then, we started asking for other capitals; very few of the present knew them all. I didn't dare to ask them the capitals of each of the 50 states.
But then I have to ask myself, how is that information of value to me in my everyday life? I can always look it up if I "need" to know. The older I get, the smaller my world has become. I'm finally learning to stop judging people for trivial things.
The point is it has nothing to do with "value to you" but with the satisfaction of knowledge. BTW, few years ago, a guy competing in Jeopardy was in the third place. When he answered correctly the category "World capitals" he ended up being the winner. Yes, knowledge is not only power but, also, money and satisfaction as well. Of course, we are all individuals and we have "individual" ways of thinking.
To me, memorizing something is not actually having knowledge about that subject. Knowledge implies learning something and knowing about it, not just memorizing information about it. We all know that The Star Spangled Banner is our national anthem, and most of us have memorized at least some of the words; but until we learn the story behind the song, the reason that Francis Scott Key wrote it, and what he was thinking and feeling when he penned those words , we actually do not have knowledge about that song. What does it matter if we know the dates when the First World War started and ended, if we have no knowledge of who fought in the war and what it was actually about. I read and study things that I want to know more about, so I am on a search for knowledge and for truth, but I am not trying to memorize facts, just understand them.
I can remember having to memorize all the state capitals. My mother taught me some mnemonics to remember them, i.e. "the bird brought a Little Rock into the Ark" and "the Boise watch Ida hoeing." Those are the only two mnemonics I remember.
Yvonne It goes without saying the person must have some knowledge on the subject. I didn't think it was necessary to mention this "detail".
I was thinking my oldest daughter was going to catch a geographical mistake a friend made at brunch. But I was proud she had let it slide. Outside I asked her how she had let it go. (she and I play knit picking games all the time) She said Howie knew how to shoe a horse which she certainly did not. Why point out the one thing he didn't know.
This sounds like another failure of our education system. A few years ago I fenced in a garden...38 feet by 71 feet. I wanted to true it up. I was able to calculate the hypotenuse in my head...it took a while, but I was determined to not use a calculator. But then, I took math when you learned math. There were no calculators, and the focus was not on "thinking the right way."
Before the days of the internet, I would carry a small notepad with me at all times. People asked things or "just wondered" in casual conversation, and would be satisfied walking away without remediating the admitted gap in their knowledge. It drove me nuts (still does.) So I would write this stuff down and every so often take the list to the library and look the stuff up. I would then share the information. Some people appreciate it. Others were annoyed.