The greatest lesson...

Recently, I posted a question as a status on Facebook.com, the question read; "What is the most basic, yet most important lesson a person should learn?" The answers that I received are as follows:
Joe Shininger- actions have consequences. alternatively-don't be a jerk.
Andrea Hill- Time waits for no one
Ryanne Patrice Ross- Sex and life and friendz
Jesse Cromwell- If God had wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise.
Stephen Rubio- How to LOVE...
Justin Overton- I think the fact that God will provide you with anything you need if you put it in his hands
James Williams- Well most people lack general common sense and common decency towards eachother and manners.
Sharecess Carter- The biggest lesson one can learn is appreciating and understanding the unconditional love you get from your family.
Natasha Milliken- Treat everyone the way you want to be treated
Kevin Anderson- I am with Joe. Consiquences of descisions.

(First off, I would like to thank everyone that answered my question and took the time to give me feedback. Thank you.)

Though most of these are truly valuable lessons that a person should learn at one point or another during their lifetime, I would not say that any of these were a essential/vital basic lesson that ALL people should learn. The key words being "most basic" and "most important". For math, the most basic and most important lesson would be numbers, for if you do not know numbers you cannot understand multiplication of polynomials. So I am referring to the fundamentals, the base, the cornerstone, the building block, etc. It is essential for true, pure, unadulterated learning; it is to question EVERYTHING!! Yes, questioning is the MOST important lesson a person could learn.

Quite frankly, questioning is a natural tendency like a knee jerk reaction. Really? Yes, really. What are the two favorite games of young children; Why? and the What if...? games; "Why is the sky blue?" "Why do the birds fly?" "What if monsters did exist?". These aren't really taught and though most times it is actually an inquisitive mind trying to fill the gap in their limited understanding, unless it is honed these powerful techniques are perverted into an annoyance session and loose their intellectual value. However instead of cultivating this natural reaction, through various institutes, we are taught NOT to question, especially those in a position of authority; parents, school officials, coaches, police officers, "elected" officials, employers, etc.

Prime example of the value in questioning; when I was in the third grade, we were creating a replica of the United States flag as a class project. As we were going through it, the teacher (Ms. Smith) would ask trivia questions about different aspects of the flag. One of her questions was; "Why are there 50 stars on the flag?" We answered, "For the fifty states." Then Ms Smith said, "Correct... but there are 52 states, Hawaii and Alaska were not added to the flag because it would be difficult to change ALL the flags." She was a school teacher in the state of Texas, so she had to have a four year degree and a teacher's certificate, so I took her word as if it was gold. That day I went home to outsmart my sister, who was a year older than me in school grades. I asked her how many stars there were on the USofA flag? She answered 50. I asked her how many states there were? She said 50. AH HA! I'm smarter than you... I repeated the information I was taught by my respectable teacher to my sister to prove my superiority. Game- set- match. Check and mate. I win, you lose... Surprisingly, she didn't believe me. WTH?!?! But my teacher said so... and because I wanted to PROVE I was right, we went to my dad's atlas and counted the states together. The first time we came up with 50, which I knew was a miscount, so I recounted 3 more times. Every time, coming up with fifty... I was upset. I had been lied to, by someone that was supposed to nurture and feed my mind and prepare me for life and if she doesn't even know how many states there are after a minimum of 17 years of schooling, then how am I supposed to trust anything else that came out of her mouth? Needless to say the next day I showed up to class on a mission; to straighten out this dilemma. She tried to argue against my new found truth up until I asked her to count all the states for me, she then conceded and renounced the false teaching of 52 states. (I think she blamed it on Guam and Puerto Rico- but no excuses)...

Another useful example is when a high school varsity basketball told her athletes to run for thirty minutes because they were not going to have practice during the winter holidays. When one of the athletes told me (a personal trainer/ certified run coach) what the coach prescribed as their workout, without hesitation I asked, "Why?" She said, "IDK.." It just doesn't make sense to me though; in a game of sprinting, with the longest dimension being 74', where does long slow distance running prove effective? Stamina? No. Running long slow distances isn't going to make fast short sprints faster, it isn't going to build up your endurance, it is simply useless for basketball training. However, since she wanted to be the "good obedient athlete" she went on and did what her coach instructed her to do. She didn't question the coaches methods and the coach didn't question the terrible learned methods that someone passed on to her.

Where is the value of this "vital" lesson? Though I gave these minor, quasi insignificant examples, the liberation is being able to be a critical thinker. Throughout our lives we are taught to do what people tell us and those who comply are the ones that are rewarded- to reinforce the sheepish qualities- and those who question authority are punished. Why is thinking on your own and evaluating the validity of the information that a third party gives you (whether through lecture, book, media, etc.) frowned upon? Because it is empowering. Being able to cipher between fact and fiction means that it is harder to control and manipulate you, I would have to put forth a valiant effort to deceive you or assert dominance over you through force or another means of oppression (IE debt).

I will leave you with this clip of George Carlin (Yes, I am aware that he is an avid atheist just eat the meat and spit out the bones. For he was very insightful in other facets of life- not to mention funny too).



and this picture....



(If you are offended by Carlin's language, reread my second blog).

Many of you will read what I wrote and sheepishly simply agree (which would be the exact opposite of what I desire). I am not THAT good of an teacher/ writer to were I leave the matter resolved and without question. So feel free to question what I say, protest my thoughts, give criticism- just remember if you have taken the time to read, please take the time to leave a comment. I DO EXPECT IT.