Know-It-Alls Don’t Know It All
Ray has been teaching from Proverbs in our Sunday School class. Among the verses we discussed yesterday was this one:
Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge,
But he who hates reproof is stupid.
Proverbs 12:1
An idea popped into my head almost as soon as we read the verse:
Know-it-alls don’t know it all.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary definition of know-it-all is “one who claims to know everything” and also “one who disdains advice.” One of the most important things know-it-alls don’t know is that they need to listen and learn. Basic skills are the building blocks to every child’s learning, and one of the most basic of those basic skills is a willingness to be taught.
I have long loved this quote by Benjamin Franklin from Poor Richard’s Almanac:
Let thy Child’s first Lesson be Obedience,
and the second will be what thou wilt.
We can picture what would happen in this scene if every woman had her own ideas about dance and refused to listen to instruction.
La classe de danse – A dancing class : Monsr. Coulon’s Academy, 1883
Ludovici, Albert, Artist
Salmon, Emile Frédéric, Etcher
Courtesy of the New York Public Library
Chaos could reign in the Sunday school room if it was full of students unwilling to listen to their teacher.
Sunday school teacher in Woodville, California
Farm Security Administration photo by Russell Lee, 1942
Courtesy of the New York Public Library
If this student was unwilling to learn from her teacher’s instruction, she might never develop music skills beyond what she already knows . . .
Piano teacher
Works Progress Administration photo, 1938
Courtesy of the New York Public Library
. . . . . and if unwilling to listen to their mother, these boys might never add or subtract.
Mother teaches her children in Transylvania, Louisiana
Works Progress Administration photo by Russell Lee, 1939
Courtesy of the New York Public Library
You have a wonderful opportunity to teach your children skills and knowledge and truth they will need all their lives. Solomon knew that when he instructed his son in Proverbs. One of the first lessons Solomon taught him was to be a humble learner and not a know-it-all.
Hear, O sons, the instruction of a father,
And give attention that you may gain understanding,
For I give you sound teaching;
Do not abandon my instruction.
When I was a son to my father,
Tender and the only son in the sight of my mother,
Then he taught me and said to me,
“Let your heart hold fast my words;
Keep my commandments and live;
Acquire wisdom! Acquire understanding!
Do not forget nor turn away from the words of my mouth.”
Proverbs 4:5