Too much enrichment?

I don’t know about you, but “know-it-all’s” really bother me sometimes. You know, they’re the experts in pretty much every subject and always have a new piece of knowledge to share with you or anyone else in the room. My dad is sometimes this way, because he is very intelligent and knows a great deal about things in many different fields. We just chalked it up to his being an engineer, since it seems to be a common trait of other engineers our family knows. Since my dad does not have an arrogant bone in his body, he is rarely annoying when he shares his knowledge.

The time that I remember being most annoyed with people who seemed to know everything was on a road trip to Colorado. If any of you who were there are reading this post, don’t forget I love you, in spite of... well... My traveling buddies were all in various scientific fields--industrial engineering, chemistry, and biology, I believe. They were wonderful people, and all very intelligent. Know-it-all’s one and all, too. Our conversation topics ranged from raising sheep to theology, to the trucking industry, to societal trends in maturity, and to denominational distinctives. I like to talk--a lot--and about a wide range of topics, but this bunch really wore me out. Perhaps I was just feeling that inferiority that an English major may often feel when surrounded by science geniuses, but I know I looked at each one of them at some time during the night and shook my head, thinking, “Yeah, I bet you really are the best expert I could find on that topic in the American West.” Sarcastically, of course.

Ummm, here’s the reason I am bringing up this topic... I have to confess that I am a know-it-all. I’ve realized for a long time that I have this tendency, but I watch it more carefully in some settings than in others. It usually is a great quality to have as a teacher, especially when one works in a pretty collaborative setting like my school. First of all, if I don’t have a modicum of knowledge in every academic subject area I am not able to help my students as well as I should. Also, I want to spark the imagination of my under-resourced learners so that they see all the experiences that can be in store for them, academically and otherwise, and a wide range of knowledge helps there. My high schoolers work independently at their own pace, so there is great time for student-teacher interaction, which means when one of my freshmen asked me whether or not America currently had a king (not kidding), you had better believe she did not receive a simple “no.” I’m sure some of my kids get aggravated by that (Ask a simple question...), but many of them enjoy my little tangents and learn their material better because of them. I call it “enrichment.”

However, I’ve realized over the last two weeks that I’m not doing very well at turning my “enrichment tool” off after school. Two separate weekends convicted me and reminded me that in all my wisdom I can be very clueless. First, I joined my mother and my sister for Women of Faith in St. Paul (which was fabulous, by the way. I’m not sure if I’ll get around to blogging about it, but I was thoroughly entertained, blessed, and encouraged). Sometime during the second day, a small group of us were in the middle of conversation, and when I started to chip in my thoughts, my sister got my attention and said subtly, “Stop talking. You’ve talked enough.” I had thought I’d gotten to the point when I was good at knowing when to appropriately insert my ideas, but her comment made me consider that maybe I’m not quite there, or at least that I still have my moments of verbal steamroller. Later on that day she said something to the same effect that stung a little, and corrected me. I definitely got annoyed with her, but I also replayed the weekend quite a bit to see if I had been dominating a bit. I wasn’t sure, but I knew it was completely possible. My sister is usually right when she confronts me on that kind of thing.

The next weekend I was on a girls’ weekend in Rapid City with two of my best girlfriends in Eagle Butte, and we again had a fantastic time. However, there were at least two or three times (probably more) that I off-handedly mentioned some “factoid” or random thing that I had heard, and my friends and I had little mini-arguments over them that weren’t at all hostile but were unnecessary. I’m not sure my friends really picked up on those moments, but if they were bothered by them, I probably need to apologize. I hope they don’t make me go too far back in apologizing for these moments, because I know I get that way semi-often, and usually end up in stupid arguments.

My students in seventh grade asked me to go for a whole morning without smiling at them last Thursday. That was miserable. My research shows that a smile really does make Miss Osthus’ day go better. However, next time I’m with my friends, I’ll ask God to help me go for an evening without having a “Little Miss Know-it-all” moment. I think that will be much more helpful, and that I can find other ways to “enrich” the conversation!