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Don’t just teach your children to read. Teach them to question what they read. Teach them to question everything. – George Carlin
I had not heard this George Carlin quote when I was raising my sons, but that is how my wife and I raised our boys. We taught them to read, to question what they read, and to question everything. To question whether it was right or wrong.
Not to necessarily challenge everything they found to be wrong, but to be aware something was wrong. There are many times authority is unwilling to be questioned and even more times when it refused to be challenged. But awareness is important, even when - exit, stage right - is the best solution to dealing with folly.
That training has served them well. They all have successful careers and independent lives. They do not always win, but they win more than they lose. More importantly, they know when bad decisions are going to lead to chaos, and extract themselves from a situation before that happens.
It seems obvious - at least to me - a lot of parents have taught their children to read but not to question what they read. Take the example of these two darlings at the latest anti-Israel protest. Why are they protesting? They don't know. They have been told (or read) that Israel is bad and Palestine is good, and that is good enough to get them out on the street. They never learned to question what they read or hear, so they just accept the first thing they are told and run with it.
My bet is today's education system encourages this behavior. It makes life easier for the classroom teachers and furthers the goal of indoctrination over education. It remains possible to get an education rather than an indoctrination at colleges today, but it requires effort on the part of the student.
As for parents with young children? If you don't want turned into obedient drones, follow Carlin's advice. Don't just teach them to read. Teach them to question what they read, and to question everything.
Discussion (15)
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Not just question but (a) start with some humility about what you don't know (yet) and (b) foster a desire and sense of obligation to learn.
My father was tougher on me when I agreed with him but offered lame arguments in support. He once said he didn't want me on his side if I was going to make the side seem stupid. Go join and embarrass the other guys if you are going to be glib and lazy. (Even though that combo would turn out to be gold for Obama. Who knew?)
I was blessed to have a series of great teachers whose gift was not eloquent persuasion so much as respectful probing questioning that shook confidence in superficial understandings.
George Carlin was never deep but a very effective gadfly. My favorite Carlin joke was his reaction to the Catholic Church dropping the requirement for meatless Fridays. That's great but what all those guys in hell on a meat rap?
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Only high I.Q.. people should question stuff. Dumb people should be given a pleasant and wholesome and pushed into some kind of wholesome work.
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IQ ain't all it's cracked up to be, especially by the "High-IQ" people.
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I used to enjoy Carlin, but later in life I realized he's one of those - like Bill Maher, among others - who claim themselves to be some kind of observers, but who actually help advance the decline and then act like they had nothing to do with it.
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No. I.Q. is immensely determinative of a person's capabilities and it effects them for their entire life. We should use genetic engineering to increase the population's I.Q.
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