Another Gift of a Good Education: Being Okay with My Ignorance(s)

I don’t think it was until I was in college, when the quarter’s tuition bill was delivered to my campus mailbox in New Hampshire, that I directly thanked my parents for their investment in my education.

My parents had done their work with my older brother and sister, identifying schools they thought would serve us best. They chose our elementary and 5-12 schools. Rightly so. I was unaware of the financial sacrifices they were making through the first 13 years of our schooling.

Once bills were coming to me, I developed the habit of forwarding the tuition receipts along with a handwritten letter to my parents, telling them what their investment had “bought” in that quarter for which they were being billed. That investment allowed me to learn all sorts of things, to develop opinions based on study, and to understand more about the world than I ever could have without amazing teachers and coaches. One of my favorite benefits of having gone to absolutely wonderful schools and, most importantly, having had challenging and gifted teachers and coaches, though, seems like a contradiction: a significant benefit of a good education is my comfort with my ignorance(s). 

For so many of those things I do not know, I am grateful that I do not have to be embarrassed. I find myself asking, comfortably and often, what various four or five-syllable words mean. Just as frequently, I find myself asking someone to explain an economic concept. Just last week, I learned what an em-dash (see graphic, left) is, and why it is important in sleuthing Artificial Intelligence use. It seems I was the last person at the Senior Leadership table to learn what an em-dash was. I am glad to know now. And I am glad I live in an environment of constant learning, where we can celebrate our efforts to always address an ignorance.