Well, they did it again.
This post was a digression into the importance of being able to say “I don’t know.” because there is this strange expectation for you to know everything, especially as a professor. What I learned in college was that professors tend to focus their instruction very narrowly so it reflects their precise and limited field of knowledge. The effect is the appearance of being all-knowing. Let me be clear: nobody can know everything about anything. Information will always be waiting to be discovered.
This truth stuck me dumb many years ago when I was a drug rehab counselor. I became familiar with the AA mantra, “grant me the wisdom to accept the things I cannot change and the courage to change the things I can.” i am likely misquoting here, so we will call it paraphrasing. The message is clear. You must be willing to embrace the truths in order to move forward and change what you can. In terms of this argument, you must be able to accept that you do not have all the answers in order to move into learning mode and try to gain more knowledge about a subject you once presumed you knew everything about.
I learn more about teaching every day. I study film, writing, science, anything I can wrap my mind around in order to become more knowledgeable about the world we live in. I recognize that I know very little, and this makes me happy, because it means I have more to learn and more to do in life. Learning is like a fuel that fills the engine of desire.