Speaker Geeks! discussion

What do you guys think about the saying "Ignorance is bliss"? Agree, disagree...thoughts?

I disagree because not knowing is not always bliss. Not having the right knowledge at the correct time could hinder a person greatly. I know that I would rather understand and acknowledge something then know not a thing about it. The human brain was designed for intelligence, so we should nurture that. Sure there are terrible things that you may not want to know and when you are a child with not a care in the world, it may seem blissful...and as I say again, not knowing, not having experience, not knowing right from wrong or potential dangers is not a good thing. Of course you should not overwhelm yourself or others with intense worry but it is important to not simply be ignorant to your surroundings. Ignorance has lead to many many bad things happening, and I would say that those bad things don't count as bliss. So I suppose it's a yes and a no, a little ignorance can be blissful so you do not get stressed, but to much ignorance is simply dangerous.

I think ignorance can be considered a good thing--I was going through some of my old stuff from when I was in sixth grade, and this included things like old letters I wrote to my sister and old activities I used to work on. When I was younger and didn't have to think about my future or college or the thought of every moment wasted is a moment closer to death, I was very happy whereas now I'm more stressed.

I do see your points though--too much ignorance can't be that great of a thing, but I think it depends on the situation. For example, if my parents were divorced b/c one of them had cheated on another, I would much rather not know, even though after finding out I would probably get mad and ask, "Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

Sometimes, I think. It depends greatly on the situation. Consider this scenario:

In medieval times a peasant lives with little money and no real prospects or means to raise their standard of living at all. Knowing about everything the royalty has and what they do wouldn't help the person at all. It would make them miserable. In that case, not knowing is better because if the person is left to think that everyone else has it equally bad their own life isn't so bad by comparison. The key there is that there must be no way of the knowledge helping whatsoever.

In cases where a person is sick and dying and can either know or not know, knowing can be better because they can spend their time more wisely for having the information, so even if they can't change anything knowing is still best.

I would love to go back to when I wasn't aware of sexism, racism, rape, etc, all the major bad things in life.

Of course, since I do know about them, I wouldn't want to take back what I know...that doesn't make sense, does it...

I'd say its nice not being a ware of certain things, I wish I didn't.

But then without being aware of those things I don't think I would hold the morals I do, its sort of necessary, a part of maturing in life is becoming less ignorant.

I guess I would be glad to not know so much about sex (thank you, random internet ads that I never needed) but I guess it doesn't hurt me knowing about it either.

Sort of like people and the abstinence-ed and sex-ed argument--the reason kids who took abstinence-ed are more likely to get pregnant is because they are unaware of the risks of unprotected sex and such.

I thought it was funny personally (you're in eighth grade? I thought you were the same age as me!) because they stressed it so much and my class was just like, "Whatever."

I'm a ninth grader. I'm taking a semester of health over the summer, since it's a tenth grade course.

We have similar lessons here PSHME (Not a clue what it stands for) Its your average well being, drugs and sex ed type of class. The way they dealt with the whole portected sex for us (I must have been in Yr11) is by showing us the implications of unprotected sex, needless to say I think most people are very careful about it after that lesson.

I dunno if tenth grade health is different from middle school health, but my middle school focused way too little on the whole sex part of health. My younger cousin who doesn't know how children are created still has no idea what sex is, even after two health classes.

Just asking though, when you say "implications", do you mean STDs or pregnancy or such? (Also, I'm trying to figure what it stands for, but I can't even get past the first letter.)

H99 wrote: "PSHME= Personal, Social, Health, and Moral Education. I think that's it."

That rings a bell

Lo wrote: "I dunno if tenth grade health is different from middle school health, but my middle school focused way too little on the whole sex part of health. My younger cousin who doesn't know how children ar..."

They talked about the STI, showed us pictures, talked about the cure (If there is one) and as it was done by nurses they talked of the expeiriences of people they had treated.

Ha ha wow. I can barely look at those pictures of eyes science teachers show to make you wear goggles on the first day of school. STI images...oh jeez.