Common Sense

I have a little theory. The theory is this: Common sense is actually not common at all, rather, it must be taught. We are not born with the knowledge of common sense. It is something we have to be taught just like everything else.

My mother-in-law is a missionary in Accra, Ghana. She works with an organization that takes care of orphans. Sometimes she finds it challenging working with the staff that have been hired to work the grounds of the village i.e. kitchen workers, laundry personnel, gardeners, because it seems as if they are lacking in "common sense." For example, on one particular occasion, she gave a box full of dryer sheets (which she had brought back from America because you cannot purchase such things in Africa) to one of the laundry staff. The man came back to her the next day and said, "The sheets you gave me didn't work." My mother-in-law responded, "What do you mean they didn't work?" The man said, "Well, they didn't do anything. I put them in the washing machine and they didn't do anything." Needless to say, my mother-in-law was very perturbed that this gentleman had just ruined her entire box of laundry sheets!

Now, if you had never seen dryer sheets before but someone handed them to you, calling them "dryer" sheets for use in the "dryer," would you put them in the washing machine? It's common sense, right? Wrong! Common sense must be taught!

Today, my 6 year old (almost 7 year old) son, spilled orange juice all over the floor. I instructed him to use a towel to mop it up and then a wash rag to clean it. Then, I made him clean it three times with a rag since orange juice is sticky. Then I told him to get a towel and dry the floor. He proceeded to pick up the orange juice saturated towel and dry the floor. Now, who would do that? You don't use a wet and sticky towel to dry the floor! It's common sense, right? Wrong! Common sense must be taught.

I once read an article about a foreign woman who was hired in the U.S. to care for an infant while the parents were away at work. When the baby wouldn't stop crying the woman shook the child vigorously on more than one occasion. The baby afterward would be lethargic and wouldn't eat. When, the parents finally took the child to the doctor, it was discovered what had been done. At the bottom of the same article were the results of a poll where people had been asked whether they knew that it was unsafe to shake a baby. I do not remember the percentage but believe it or not, there was actually a percentage of people that claimed they did not know it was dangerous to shake a baby. My first reaction was, "Duh! What are you, STUPID?! That's just common sense!" But, I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that no one had ever told them that it was a bad idea to shake a baby. That is possible, right? Common sense-it must be taught!

So, what I am trying to get at here is this: there really is no such thing as common sense. We are born knowing nothing. Everything we learn we have been taught. The only thing common about a fact that is "common sense" is that the vast majority of people know about it. And they know about it because they were taught it!