Show No Need To Go She SIte Knows By FLORENCE BITTNER The old adage says The UThe Themore Themore more you learn the less you know and the older I get the more I realize how true that is THREE DA DAYS YS after our little girl started kindergarten she came home and announced I HI dont don't need to go to school any more Ive I've been TO HER small understanding understand understand- ing had been added the knowledge of where school- school bound bound students went and and what vh f fth th ey did when they got there and that was as f far faras faras r ras as her curiosity went at that point She graduated from college last June but hardly paused in hi her education to commemorate commemorate commemorate orate that event before enrolling enrolling enrolling en en- rolling in graduate school THERE IS so much I dont don't know she insisted Maybe by the time I have m my mast masters master's rs r's degree Ill I'll feel qualified qualified qualified to teach others tt The poet Tennyson said it itin itin itin in his Ulysses Yet Vet all experience experience experience ex ex- ex- ex is an arch where where- through gleams that world whose margin fades forever forever forever for for- ever and forever when I move TO THOSE of small understanding understanding understanding under under- standing a little is enough Climb to the top of a small hill and there is more world to know and when you reach the mountain peak there isa isa is isa a vast world laid before you waiting to be subdued and understood and brought within with with- in your grasp We dont don't know what we dont don't know THOSE MEN who have probed the outer limits of human understanding have a faint glimmer of the vastness of unexplored knowledge and they are universally humbled by this insight Yet people persist in wearing wearing wearing wear wear- ing blinders Dropouts from school so often reflect the limited understanding exhibited by our kindergarten educated daughter WilY WHY GO on to school Its It's a waste of time when I could be out earning money This is the view of the uneducated uneducated uneducated un un- un- un educated who have not climbed the hill of learning far enough to know how wide the world is My ty Warren is in Sixth grade this year and when he asked what he would be studying in junior high I mentioned mentioned mentioned men men- English first and he was indignant I ALREADY know U the parts of speech pronouns and all th that t. t Why do I need to study more En English lish Warren is an original and enthusiastic speller but he cant can't see why he needs to know any more than he now knows about the tool he will use more than any other in his lifetime HOW DO you explain to the student who would drop out o oL high school why hy chemistry chemistry- is sJ- sJ important even for C format r housewife housewife The girl who does not study chemistry will wonder wonder won won- der del all her life liCe why vinegar fizzes when baking soda is added It is this girl who might innocently one day add clorine bleach to ammonia The student who refuses to practice the piano long enough to get past the drudgery of the first simple pieces to the point where the notes mean something will never know the thrill of being able to make music He will never know what the musician hears because because because be be- cause educated ears hear entirely different music from the uneducated HOW DO the uneducated know what is inside themselves themselves themselves them them- selves if they never provide provide pro pro- provide vide for themselves tools to unlock the doors and let their ability out How many and Thomas Edison have been locked inside minds which lacked the tools to make use of their abilities Not all University graduates have a great deal to contribute contribute contribute con con- tribute to society but at least they will know they have not thrown away the stepping steppingstones steppingstones steppingstones stones which would have let them see the mountain peak |