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Today, during one of my dome lecture sessions at a high school in Mandug, Davao City, I overheard kids laughing and pointing at some of their classmates and ridiculing them that they are "ignorant" while I was playing around with some features of the planetarium.

So when my lecture began, instead of starting off with my usual talk on the position of the sun in the sky, I had to pause for a bit and started to tell the kids about ignorance.

I told them, you know kids, it's actually better to be ignorant than be biased (via incorrect information/data). You are here to learn about astronomy, which is footed/founded on the scientific method, and recalling what Neil deGrasse Tyson said, that you cannot be a scientist if you are uncomfortable with ignorance.

I told them that sometimes, embracing ignorance rather than assuming something just because you're biased about it (i.e. you believe/assume that your horoscope is correct and that you're gonna have a great day today because you were born on the same day as Zac Efron and he's a Scorpio and you're a Scorpio and all that shit) is the better mode of thinking.

I was pleasantly surprised that their murmuring settled down and they were actually listening to me intently while I was saying this. You couldn't even hear a pin drop in the dome (well, the blower that blows up the inflatable down was still noisy but you know what I mean LOL).

It's always fulfilling when you know the kids listen and perhaps learn something from what you say.

BTW that bit about Tyson's remark on ignorance can be found in this great video of him talking about UFO's:



-RODION