If ignorance is bliss, then some people are already in their own private version of heaven.
As a teacher, I took on students and trainees who had been labelled as "stoopid" by educators who simply had no patience to learn what style of education or pedagogy applied to that particular student. Some learn from repeated observation, some from repeated practice, and some have been labelled "stoopid" for so long, they start to believe it themselves.
Ignorance, IMHO, is simply a lack of knowledge, coupled with no real reason to accumulate the knowledge base required to understand the issue at hand. Personally, I struggled with some of the more complex mathematical equations during high school, not that I was a slouch with maths, it was my second favourite subject, but all those x's and y's were meaningless to me. Give me whole numbers, or even complex fractions of whole numbers, and I'd give you an answer pronto.
My math teacher favoured those who understood, and ignored those who didn't. A change of teacher in my sub-senior year with the subsequent change in pedagogy, resulted in a big change in my learning capability. I saw the reason for the x's and y's, and the whole picture came into focus. I went from being "stoopid" to being bored with the slow rate of progress of some of the previous teacher's pets. Once the REASON for learning is made clear, the effort becomes less.
Why, for example, would an interstate truck driver need to know algebra? He might be able to analyse the racing form guide, or get top marks on the football tipping contest, but not knowing algebra automatically makes him ignorant?
I don't know, Tori. The question needs some clarification.
There are some genuinely stupid people by birthright, I guess. Then there are some genuinely ignorant people by choice.
They simply don't need, or want to know.
