The Courage to Not Know

To learning anything deeply, we have to be intellectually honest. We’re all born with honesty; you can see it in toddlers as they keep asking “why” because they don’t know, and they’re not embarrassed to admit it. They’ll keep going until they hear something that makes sense to them. That’s how learning is supposed to work.

But in the school environment, admitting you don’t know gets a little...risky, because if you say, “I’m not sure,” that can translate into a lower grade. What that teaches us is that it is safer if you pretend to know, because after all there is a chance your pretending could go somewhere. Nobody explicitly tells you to fake it, but the system unintentionally rewards you for it. You can’t write “I don’t really understand this part” on a test without getting penalized. And multiple-choice questions practically teach you that guessing is better than admitting ignorance. You’re better off picking an answer, even if it’s just a guess. Guessing is generally not a bad thing, but in this case, it’s pretending to know, and depending on the test results it might create the illusion of understanding.

This pretending though can only work up to a point. Once you’re in a situation where real progress depends on knowing what you don’t know, pretending won't work anymore. If you don’t know something, you have to admit it. Otherwise, you get stuck.

I think the people who thrive in any field like science, business, art, and any other are those who re-learn how to be honest about what they don’t know. They start asking real questions again and as a result they become better learners. They’ve re-learned how to say, “I don’t know, but I’m going to find out.”

It's a real pity if we use the 12 years of school to bury intellectual honesty and curiosity, instead of sharpening them. By encouraging questions over answers, as well as really living it, and rewarding exploration over certainty, schools can shape lifelong learners: people who know how to think, question, and discover.