When I was in high school ROTC the instructor gave the class this long lecture about the difference between ignorance and stupidity. The main thing I took from that was generally we as people use the term stupid way too much and we dont really take in consideration the fact that many people are simply ignorant of certain things or topics. When we say someone is stupid we are excusing ourselves from actually educating that person on a particular topic. Perhaps we do that because the topic is awkward or we dont want to put ourselves in a position of possible confrontation with that other person. By saying someone is stupid we can assume that the person lacks intelligence and therefor we dont need to even bother explaining things to them because well they are too stupid to understand. But if we say to ourselves well that person is just ignorant of... then we actually make an attempt to educate that person. I am writing this because when Stetson came out and people around me such as friends, family or co-workers discovered my son was gay they would ask me questions. Initially, when people asked me certain questions my first though was Geeze what a stupid question I got questions like Do you still love him? or When did he turn gay? initially grated my nerves because I saw them as stupid I am not sure when it finally clicked with me that these people were not stupid or asking stupid questions; they were simply ignorant of just about anything dealing with LGBT issues. I learned their ignorance stemmed from lack of interaction with the LGBT community, their families and friends. I also learned that by treating those questions as teaching moments I felt much more fulfilled than just simply looking at the person as if they were stupid. Often we hear not questions but rather judgements or insults and again our hearts and minds revert to oh that person is just stupid, yet these are teachable moments as well. I look forward to the many teachable moments that we as a community will be able to partake in to educate this area. As frustrating as it is, I encourage and challenge every one here to look at these people not as stupid but as a human being who hasnt been taught.
Posted on: Fri, 15 Nov 2013 02:46:08 +0000
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