LBST 100
Knowledge is not as straight forward as you may believe. In this essay, I will share and reflect how much more complex approaching knowledge really is.
There are many ways of approaching knowledge and the way we manage it. In school, we learn from great leaders and people who made the world it is today, for all that’s worth. The people who contain the most knowledge have been rewarded, known to all and be read by students around the world, right? I believe there are many ways to be knowledgeable, not always in the “book smart,” sense. There is a large difference between, knowledge and opinion. Unfortunately, they are easy to cross over, in literature, documentaries, internet, etc. people confuse the right of speech, with conveying knowledge through these different platforms. Opinion can be diluted and bias, whereas the truth is what is known. In that sense, there may be no official knowledge and just what was once someones mere opinion.
Learning as a young girl (before I was in school) consisted of running around barefoot, playing in my backyard, using my imagination. After a vicious bee sting I learned that it wasn’t always the best idea to run around without shoes, and forward I wore shoes. I developed patience with animals and learned from the beginning what my own opinion was for right and wrong behavior. Today I rely on those core teachings when dealing with every aspect of my life, even though in someways my knowledge can affect me poorly in some aspects of my life. I sometimes assume that everyone knows what the basic knowledge of what right and wrong are and I don’t know how to work well under pressure. In other contexts of life, I sometimes find myself thinking about knowledge differently. I believe there is knowledge in every part of the world. At my work, one looking in may have their own opinion about how easy/difficult it may seem to them. For me, however, I may have a completely different understanding than someone looking in. What one thing seems for one person could be completely different from the eyes of the beholder.
In the readings, the one that stood out the most for me was the reading, “Indigenous Knowledge: Background.” I connect with this reading because it talks about knowledge from nature, and how even though Euro-American settlers believed their understanding of knowledge and what it meant to them was the only way of learning and how it should be taught, they stood by their beliefs for many years determined to continue to teach what their knowledge is. In this reading the author discusses clarification of indigenous peoples, and what it means to be apart of a collective. In my lifespan, I have had trouble fitting into the box that school systems deem as “proper education.”My parents wanted the best for my education so they did their best to move me to the “best” institutions they believed possible for our financial ability. In many ways, I believe that I hold a great deal of knowledge, yet I believe there is more to life than the curriculum in high schools, elementary and some post-secondary. I believe there should be more mandatory disciplines in school to teach us about what the earth has to offer us, and how we should do everything in our power to save it.
Every day we learn and develop for as long as we live, while it may not always be clear what has been learned. Our past, present, and future determine what we will do with the knowledge we have and will get. Approaching knowledge has changed drastically throughout the years and will continue to change, the more we learn the more there is to learn. For me, learning will always be fascinating to me and the more I learn about indigenous cultures around the world the better understanding I will have about what the earth really has to offer us. From the time I was small until now I have learned that, without trees or animals we will have no air to breathe and no earth to call home.
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