| Show halt 9 ail says seems odd the number of folks who mistake knowledge for horse I 1 sense or for that matter horse sense for knowledge sometimes looks like many of our educators are guilty of fostering the idea that the two terms are synonymous but dont let em fool you cause their is a sight of difference horse sense some prefer to use the term native intelligence still others favor common sense is a god given attribute it Is 1 the ability to apply in a practical way the knowledge gained from experience or from books like other attributes it may be cultivated provided of course there s any in ones makeup make up to culli vate con Conj lder abe lincoln ana will rogers two great americans two prolific dispensers of sugar coated out sage advice two purveyors of fra friendly homely philo philosophy ophy two true humanitarians neither could boast of his book larnin one began life as a rail splitter the other Ls is a cow puncher yet both are gilted among the immortals why because the basic mental character of each waz was just plain horse sene and in both this characteristic was developed to the nth degree ee As a esula the whole world was oene fitted by their having lived you ay these men had knowledge sure but they had horse sense first A horse sense that de ii a vast amount of useful actual kilow knowledge loge to he be 41 digested 1 cataloged crosa indexed and otherwise made ready for or instant usg use whenever occasion demanded a horse hone sense that easily detected sham pretense and subterfuge a horse cense that dared toy with visions and then make of those is i sons lons real realities lUes many years ago some wise guy tid cid knowledge is power ever since ince he made that utterance his cords have been used a trap for fools A sage would have said horse sense backed by knowledge Is power but his words undoubtedly would not have proven as popular or as fallacious falla clous as those quoted above now in most mental equipment there lurks at least a bit of horse sense but ive always reckoned that in most of us that horge hore sense Is more or less specialized that is trends towards parti ular abilities varying of course with the individual john might be bc a natural born lawyer and bill a natural born mechanic oftentimes when knowledge gained thru education does not supplement ones natural abilities that person becomes a square peg in a round hole an educated derelict or just a plain flat failure or bum vaunted knowledge can prove quite worthless when edu education catlon first seeks the natural trends of the student then endeavors to fit the student to conform to those trends and this regardless gard less lesic of the ambitions ot of mom and pop for their well loved but perhaps none to promising offspring the emancipation of mankind will really have begun but after all is said and done utopia will still remain a fanciful dream few of any generation are ever destined to scale the heights many sink into the depths the great majority somehow manage to muddle thru but it if the people of 0 this great majority are really doing the things nature intended them to do they will find their rewards in the greater abundance of the good things of life |
