Nothing Worth Knowing Can Be Taught

For most people, all throughout their lives they become familiar with certain phrases. They could hear them from teachers, parents, and even peers. Many of these popular phrases start off as a quote from someone well known. “Nothing worth knowing can be taught”, seems to be a common phrase that most have heard. It was first said by Oscar Wilde, who was an Irish playwright, poet, and he composed essays and novels. While it may seem obvious on the surface, what does this quote really mean when it is thoroughly analyzed? While this quote can be viewed in many ways, the general idea of this quote holds a truth but can be disapproved in many situations

Rachel Carson is well known for writing the book, Silent Spring. This book, which was written

in the early sixties talks about how we as humans are destroying the earth and are natural resources by trying to tame and control it. Carson’s overall ideas from the book, though it may not seem obvious do support the quote mentioned in the thesis above. “It is an extraordinary fact that the deliberate introduction of poisons into a reservoir is becoming a fairly common practice” (Carson 54). One very important life skill that can not be taught is respect for all living things on this planet, whether they be other human beings, animals, or even plants. You cannot be taught by a tecaher to be a kind and considerate person. People in this situation were not thinking that way, they simply wanted their crops to grow so that they could make money, and because of these selfish ways hundreds, even thousands, of water supplies were poisoned, and even the food supplies. Historically insolence has been the downfall for many. Because of King George did not treat colonists as citizens of England but yet they had to pay the same taxes and hold the same burdens, colonists wanted to become independent from England. As most know, they did win their independence. Due to King George not thinking of the colonists and only thinking of his own benefit, he lost very profitable land and a lot of power. Another important life skill that cannot be taught in a classroom is common sense. Satisfaction is another trait that is necessary for a well lived life but cannot be taught by writing an essay on it. “Only within the moment of time represented by the present century has one species -- man -- acquired significant power to alter the nature of the world” (Carson 67). Because people have tried so hard to alter the world in their favor they have practically destroyed a world that naturally provided enough for all things living on it. By building huge factories, over producing crops and drying out the soil, and using chemicals to make our food grow faster, better, or bigger, we have polluted the once clean and pure world and have destroyed the natural cycle. Now the food and water supply are contaminated with chemicals and the air around factories is filled with smog. Instead of being happy with what the world had given them, they wanted more. Rachel Carson also writes:
“We stand now where two roads diverge.

But unlike the roads in Robert Frost's familiar poem, they are not equally fair. The road we have long been traveling is deceptively easy, a smooth superhighway on which we progress with great speed, but at its end lies disaster. The other fork of the road — the one less traveled by — offers our last, our only chance to reach a destination that assures the preservation of the earth.” (Carson 209) People cannot be taught by someone else how to make the right decision, instead people have to go with how they feel. People are constantly told not to make the easy decision but to make the right one. It is not hard to decide what the right decision is, the hard part is deciding if putting the work into the right decision is worth it. You cannot be taught by a test, to put in effort to making the right decision. You develop that skill throughout your lifetime. While Wilde’s quote does hold some face value, it is not completely true. Most do not know his exact thoughts around this saying people can interpret this in their own way. Many people think lessons are only taught in a classroom, but this is far from the truth. All throughout people’s lives they are constantly being taught different lessons that stay with them throughout their lives, and almost known of them are learned in a classroom situation. Wilde says, “Nothing worth knowing can be taught.” While valuable life lessons, such as satisfaction, making the right decision, and being

unselfish, cannot be taught in a classroom, people are taught all these things at some point in their lives. They are taught by one's experiences and they are guided to learning these valuable lessons from the people around them. People cannot know something without somehow learning it, but these valuable life skills cannot be taught by sitting in a classroom. One must go out into the world to learn them. Wilde is both right and wrong. Things worth knowing can be taught, but not by a worksheet or a book. They must be learned from experience.
“Nothing worth knowing can be taught,” in a classroom.

Everything worth knowing can be taught by going out into the world and meeting new people and doing things that a person has not experienced for themselves. Oscar Wilde is right in certain circumstances, but he is also wrong. While valuable knowledge is not gotten from a textbook we have to get it somehow. Nobody is born knowing everything they do when they are at the end of their life, so if nothing worth knowing can be taught, how would anybody

learn?