How Do You Know What You Know?

We are automatic assumption machines. How far would you drive if you couldn't assume that on-coming cars are going to stay on the other side of the road? Strolling across an intersection on a green light requires an assumption, too, doesn't it. Same for when you buy something. Or marry somebody. Only we don't always think about our assumptions. ~ Discovering Assumptions ~

It is one of the questions that I regularly ask my students, especially as we study world history and world cultures, and also as we tackle new topics in science:  "How do you know what you know?"  I usually follow it up with a whole series of challenges to their thinking about the things that they encounter -- Who taught you that?  Where did you learn that?  How long have you known that?  Do you have any proof of that?  Is it possible that you might not actually know that?  What would happen if you were wrong about that? ...

What I notice is that, even at the very young ages of 11 or 12, students are very attached to the things that they "know," and it is very, very difficult to get them to even consider the possibility that there might be some other way of seeing the world.  Kids just KNOW that if they look more like one parent than another, then they must have gotten all of their genes from that parent.  Introduce them to a society where three brothers share a single wife, and they are going to, inevitably, go, "EWWWWWWWWW!"  They know that their lives will be pretty much like their parents', and they are convinced that their religious/political views (given to them as a whole package by their parents, and totally unexamined at this point) are the "right" ones. 

I've been reminded, here, about how important it is to watch out for assumptions as we go through our lives.  Surely, as I've learned my way into the life I've chosen, I've had to confront, and rethink a whole number of assumptions -- things that I was pretty sure I KNEW. 

I've had to learn to think about love and sex and eroticism in ways that were never part of what I was taught by the culture, to respond instead to what is true for me.  I've had to reevaluate the notion of "rights" -- the right to be treated as an equal, the right to make my own choices, the right to be heard whenever I have something that I think is important to say, the right to take care of my own needs first, the right to decide when and how and where, the right to have things be the way I want them to be...  I've had to reframe my assumptions about family and marriage.  It has been necessary for me to notice all the couple-based, heteronormative, religiously defined beliefs -- and look carefully at whether those things are really "true," or the only "truth."  I've had to reexamine the whole tapestry of social interactions that surrounds my life, and understand what is and is not "true" about concepts like friendship and community and belonging.  What I've learned, for myself, is that there are lots and lots of things that we all just accept as normal and right and true without ever examining how we came to hold those views. 

The fact is that, for most of us, the culture that we grew up with seems absolutely "right."  It is all around us -- the air we breathe and the sea within which we swim.  Mostly we don't even notice it unless or until it comes to somehow impinge upon our awareness.  We are able to assume that things are the way we think they are because we are not generally challenged to see it any differently.  We really are not all that far removed from the time when we all lived in very small, very isolated communities, when "the wisdom of the village" ruled every aspect of our lives.  Today, we have a much broader view available to us.  We do not have to be constrained by the assumptions of the place where we are. 

On the other hand, we do all live in the place where we are.  We can examine our own assumptions.  We can ask ourselves those "how do you know what you know" questions.  What we cannot do, if we learn to see what others do not, is expect them to shift their awareness.  We can challenge them.  We can tell them what we can see.  Choosing to see more widely however -- that is entirely up to them, and it is not something that most people ever choose to do.

swan