But I don't even know Swahili!

[redbird]

Someone over on alt.poly is calling various people who have been disagreeing with her and asking her to share the responsibility for writing understandably (rather than demanding that we read her mind instead of her words) "over-educated". I can't possibly be over-educated: I don't understand quantum mechanics, know almost no African history, and don't know Swahili or Chinese or any of the language of Papua New Guinea. I've never read Proust or Milton, and I don't know the infield-fly rule or how to knit a sweater.

How can anyone since Gutenberg be over-educated, when there's so much to know and so little time to learn it all?

Edit: I strongly recommend the discussion in wild_irises' journal that grew out of this: http://www.livejournal.com/users/wild_irises/3407.html?view=19791#t19791

Comments

[snippy]

If I am overeducated then a high school diploma constitutes overeducated. Perhaps I should drop that into the conversation.

[redbird]

I believe people have accused pnh of being over-educated, and he's a high school drop-out. Still, it might be worth a try.

[eleanor.livejournal.com]

I'm with you.

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

You're so sexy. :)

[redbird]

I'm now preening. That's the nicest thing I saw all day.

[roadnotes.livejournal.com]

You are so good.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

It's an expression. Don't take it literally.

B

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

I resent this woman's implication that "over-educated" is (a.) possible and (b.) an insult. My feeling is that if we don't keep learning, keep exploring, then we stagnate and ossify. I'd rather be overeducated (I have a pin that says Dangerously over-educated) than stagnant.

Over-educated is a state of mind. Kind of like Zen, but with more books.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

I'm dangerously overeducated. I know enough facts to fool people into thinking I know what I am talking about and then lead them off the cliff. Or something like that.

Oh wait, bored now. Who wants to go shoe shopping? <grin>

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

Over-educated is a state of mind. Kind of like Zen, but with more books.

Oh, that's good.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Yes. Absolutely.

I resent it the same way I resent being called a bookworm.

[redbird]

To me, "bookworm" can be neutral or an insult, depending on tone, but it doesn't have the automatic idea of excess.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Oh, I am proud to be a bookworm. I resent it being used as an insult.

It's very odd when "smart" and "wise" and "clever" can be used as insults, too.

[redbird]

Oh, absolutely.

[bibliotrope.livejournal.com]

Over-educated is a state of mind. Kind of like Zen, but with more books.

I love that!

It's kind of why I'm alibrarian. While working the reference desk keeps you in touch with all the stuff you don't know, it also makes all the stuff you do know, whether that's learned in an academic setting or elsewhere, useful, or potentially so. And it makes a lot of what you don't know within some kind of reach, if only so you can lead the patron to the books on calculus or Swahili or whatever.

Calculus is one of my "But I don't know ...!" subjects. I barely passed trigonometry and never really had much need for "higher math," being firmly entrenched in the "fuzzy subjects", but I've always wondered about it.

This relates to something I said in supergee's thread about his father, and also to something I said in an e-mail to my nephew last week. He's gone back to college: six years after graduating, he decided to switch majors, and now he's studying math.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

Over-educated? That's supposed to be an *insult*? That's like calling someone, gosh, mildly-scented as an insult, or perhaps too well-adjusted.

I don't understand people sometimes. Maybe I shouldn't want to.

[wordweaverlynn.livejournal.com]

Wasn't it Morris Udall who titled his biography Too Smart to Be President?

A lot of Americans seem to distrust brains. That's one reason to live in Silicon Valley. Here smart is sexy.

[aliza250.livejournal.com]

redbird: Don't make the mistake of equating knowledge with education.

[redbird]

I'm not sure what you're getting at here. Yes, education is a process, and it doesn't just produce lists of facts.

[futabachan.livejournal.com]

The infield fly rule: imagine that there's a runner on first base, and the batter hits a weak little popup to second. The correct thing for the second baseman to do is to catch the ball, putting the batter out.

However, a clever second baseman could theoretically just let the ball drop to the ground at his feet. At this point, the ball is in play, and the runner at first faces a force out at second. So by letting the ball drop, picking it up, stepping on the base, and throwing to first, the defense could pick up an extremely cheap double play on what should have been a simple fly out.

The infield fly rule prevents that specific little bit of cheapness. If it's obvious that it's a weak little fly ball to the infield, the umpire can simply call the batter out, whether the defense actually catches the ball or not, on the assumption that if they don't catch it, they're trying to cheat in that specific way. It only applies if there's a runner on first with fewer than two out, which is what makes the rule look more complex than it really is.

There. Now you know about the infield fly rule. :-)

[redbird]

Thank you! I haven't even had my first cup of tea, and I've already learned something. This should be a good day.

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

A kid came into my classroom yesterday with her parent, who told me, "She says she's decided not to learn anything all day." (It's a play-based curriculum, but she likes to tease like that.)

Throughout the day, she'd do something that involved learning, from asking, "Does your dog like kids?" to having a story read to her, and I joked, "Ack, stop it! You're learning!" At one point, she said, "I have cranberry juice in my lunch because I'm sick and it helps." I asked, "Bladder infection?" and she nodded. That was all.

Halfway through the day, she had me jot down a note for the parent: "Dear Dad. Today I learned about bladder infections and how to read."

[numbat.livejournal.com]

Of course you don't know Swahili. There isn't a Swahili on LJ yet. Why isn't there a Swahili on LJ yet? This is a serious oversight on somebody's part.

[elusis.livejournal.com]

"Haba na haba hujaza kibaba." Or, "little by little fills the measure." The one bit of Kiswahili I remember from my "Classical Literature of Islam and Persia" class my first semester of collge (cor crikey, 13 years ago now! Ouch.)

[ailbhe]

I'm an over-educated Scorpio too. I never finished secondary school; dropped out after my Junior Cert.

A.

There's no Proust

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

but you can pretty well get up to speed on Milton at Book-A-Minute (http://www.rinkworks.com/bookaminute/b/milton.lost.shtml).

[sraun]

"over-educated"? Have you quoted the Latin T-Shirt saying at them?

There's no such thing as over-educated. There's adequately educated, and well-educated. There's Ivory Tower educated. But no such thing as "over"!

I have several reactions to someone like that - I select them semi-randomly.

First reaction - ignore them.

Second reaction - point out that communication is a two-way street, using the most reasonable language I can. Try to educate them.

Third reaction - if they're going to insist on using language in a fashion that many people demonstrably can't understand - I'll play it back at them. I'll will use the most convoluted, contrived, jargon-laden language that I can put together - and then when they complain, I pull a side-by-side. Their message, our complaints vs. my message, their complaint. If they can't see the similarity, then I ignore them as much as possible.

[wild-irises.livejournal.com]

I'm in such a different camp on this topic that I'm highjacking the thread and moving a related conversation to my own LJ. I hope you'll all come join in the fun.

[ebonyraven.livejournal.com]

that was beautiful =)