LEARN TO LEARN FROM OTHERS

Published May 2,2006 in "The Oklahoma Daily"
Viewable Online Here

The human race is constantly progressing in its accumulation of knowledge. Since the discovery of fire by the cavemen to Roman law to Renaissance architecture to modern medicine, the sum total of human knowledge is astounding in breadth and depth.

This knowledge has been and continues to be gained in one of two ways. The first is by individual minds deducing and inducing ideas from nature. Newton's now-famous gravity experiments illustrate this.

The second way, the more important way, is by transferring and enhancing knowledge among people and groups.

Consider the idea of inoculation, which was used to counter smallpox. It was first developed by a Turkish physician, but shot to prominence when successfully employed by an American doctor.

I call the second aforementioned method more important simply because if more people are involved, it follows that the knowledge gained will usually be greater.

This is all the more important given the diverse and disparate groups of people on this planet. The population of the planet has well surpassed six billion, and the growth shows no signs of slowing down.

Those six billion souls occupy every corner of the planet, at least some of the time. In the time that they are there, they undoubtedly acquire knowledge about their surroundings.

They have to because that knowledge stems from every facet of life. Thus, generally speaking, humankind is always learning because humankind is always living.

If all this knowledge was transferred and shared in the way that inoculation was, the amount of learning amassed by cooperative learning and would truly be indescribably massive.

Or, in simpler terms, as long as people in one part of the globe had knowledge of something, it would only be a matter of time and interaction before all humankind shared in its knowledge.

There is, however, one major obstacle preventing the success of the above scenario. It is man-made, baseless and completely preventable.

I'm speaking of the evil of prejudice. Throughout history, and unfortunately even today, people have thought of others as inferior, based on things such as lifestyle and skin color.

Some of that inferiority is tangible, such as the level of technological sophistication or military strength.

However, such material deficiencies should never be held to be indicative of a shortfall of useful, advanced knowledge. Consider the following:

The first permanent English settlement in North America, Jamestown, Va., refused to adopt Native American farming methods.

Such "primitive" people obviously could not know anything that English gentlemen didn't, or so the thinking went.

That most of the settlers nearly perished from a lack of food simply underscores the sheer fallacy of such a pretense.

Even in more recent times, such prejudices have persisted. Indigenous tribes, living in numerous areas, employ natural remedies and folk treatments.

These were derided as unscientific voodoo-esque practices by many in the scientific community well into the 20th century.

Recent research, however, has shown that a great many of those remedies actually have the potential to stop many deadly diseases that have plagued humans for centuries.

Just because these tribespeople have never seen the inside of a lab or a doctor's waiting room does not mean that their medicine is any less potent or innovative.

Indeed, some of their previous detractors are now using their knowledge of the natural world to forge new and powerful treatments to serve all people.

Humans are much the same, no matter where or how we live. We look similar, overall. We have the same needs.

Most importantly, we are always trying to better our lives. We are continually learning new things to do just that, both consciously and unconsciously.

Given all these glaring similarities, something as heinous and baseless and prejudice is simply counterproductive.

Not only does it belittle others unfairly, but it also keeps their accumulated knowledge from being put to widespread good use because of a false belief of its inferiority.

So when it comes to people, what they wear, how they live and where they live should not be of paramount importance.

What truly matters is what they know, and how that knowledge can be used to improve the lives of all humans.