Overheard

I discovered that common knowledge is not very common. Common sense is probably not very common as well, but I can accept that because sensibility requires some thinking to understand and make use of information. But considering the amount of trivia we’re bombarded with everyday, there just isn’t any excuse to be more ignorant than a 8-year-old if you are older than 8.

Therefore, I always thought shows like “Are you smarter than a fifth grader” are completely rigged – they made the contestants act dumb so that idiots will watch it to feel better about themselves and boost viewership and producers can rake in the moolah from advertisers. But now I think I have to reconsider that hypothesis, especially after I overheard a mother teach her daughter (probably around 8 years old) how to do her homework.

1. She raised doubts when her daughter told her wool comes from sheep.

2. She couldn’t correct her daughter when her daughter told her silk comes from wool.

3. She agreed with her daughter that sunflower translates to 太阳花, and told her daughter to write “太阳花的样子很像太阳” in her exercise book.

Sitting beside them, I was itching to help her with it, but that would have been the equivalent of giving the mother one tight slap and telling her in front of her kid how ignorant she is (even though she is).

Ignorance is scary, I should read more.