Week 5 Storytelling: Knowing Things

I've always felt like I was different from the other kids. I never watch cartoons. I don't understand why all the other kids find them so entertaining. If you dropped an anvil on a coyote's head, its skull would be crushed and it would die almost immediately - what is funny about that? I've also never had much interest in playing dress up or make-believe. If the whole point of life is to discover who you are, why would you want to waste time pretending to be something or someone you know you're not? It just doesn't make sense. To be completely honest, many of the mundane practices of my fellow third-graders seem nonsensical to me. I've explained to my parents dozens of times that I could learn more staying at home and reading books, teaching myself than I could ever learn in school. They insist, however, that, though they retain full confidence in my abilities and my affinity for academia, that I must attend school in order to be "adequately socialized." Their words, not mine. I told them that I knew that they just didn't want to be known as those people with that weird kid who's too smart for his age and doesn't have any friends. They didn't tell me I was wrong.

So I continue to go to school, against my will, mostly for the sake of my parents. Today, the teacher says that we are going to begin preparation for our big third grade standardized test at the end of the year. We begin with math. We are to know our times tables as well as be able to do long division with decimals. I quickly grow bored because I knew how to do long division in the first grade so I decide to try to expand my current knowledge. I inquire of teacher the theories and the history behind arithmetic as a subject - I'd heard it dated back to Ancient Egyptian civilization - but she merely looks slightly flustered and answers that I wouldn't need to know those things for the Big Test. Puzzled I reply:

"Yes I realize those things won't be on the test, but I would like to know."
"Why?" teacher asks, mystified.
"Because I like to know things," I say simply.
"Well," begins teacher, becoming slightly indignant, "at this time, we are going to focus on the things that will be on the Test. If you wish to 'know things' you may do so out in the hall where you will not disrupt your classmates who wish to well on this Test."

I rise from my desk, unfazed - this is not an unusual occurrence, teacher does not seem to particularly care for me - and exit the classroom deep in thought.

Is the concept of knowledge for the sake of knowledge so foreign? Must learning only be worthwhile if it can be quantified by a standardized test? I begin to realize how little learning is done just for the love of learning. My older sibling who are in high school are constantly talking about grades and scores and GPA and class rank. I don't think I've ever heard one of them talk in depth about anything they're actually learning in school. Well, I think, I certainly don't care for grades or test scores. I would just like to learn things. Things beyond "what will be on the test". With that, I walk down to the library, locate a book on Ancient Egyptian civilization, and sit down to read. I resolve to tell my parents that I will not be returning here tomorrow.

Author's Note: Disclaimer: this is NOT meant to be a commentary on academia or standardized testing. The original story from which my retelling derives, Arata Kalama, from the Buddha Unit, addresses the question of why we do certain things. In the story, Buddha questions the practices of the hermit Arata Kalama and his disciples which include denying themselves more than basic sustenance in order to achieve a great position in their next lives. Buddha views the cycle of rebirth as an undesirable curse, therefore to pursue actively is insanity. I chose to portray Buddha as a precocious third-grader because one of the attributes of children is to see things as they really are, just as Buddha did. I compared the cycle of barely living in hopes of desirable reincarnation to the process of striving for grades rather than knowledge because I believe that they are analogous in that in both situations, one is given a spectacular opportunity, but if too focused on the reward for one's labor, the ability of one to enjoy the experience is greatly diminished.

Siddhartha - the Buddha (image source: Wikipedia/Siddhartha)

 

Bibliography: "Arata Kalama." The Life of Buddha Andre Ferdinand Herold. 1922