How
did the wisdom tooth gain its name? It is simply the last molar teeth to grow,
which usually starts surfacing in humans ranging from 15 to 25 years old. The definition
of wisdom itself, as how the popular Merriam-Webster Dictionary online platform defines,
is “knowledge that is gained by having many experiences in life.” It is very
likely, then, that the term wisdom tooth came from the fact that wisdom is often
associated with how long one has lived. This wisdom tooth, the last one to come
out, then marks that the said person has been old enough to be of any wisdom.
However, linking wisdom strictly to age is never a wise thing to do. One might
find from a pure child, wisdom as stunning as that an old philosopher can give, different however in form and flavor. Therefore, wisdom is simply the ability to be
correct in a given situation, ignoring the fact of how long one has lived, ignoring
how much experience one has had, and even ignoring how the correctness is
grounded.
Children are often regarded as inexperienced, small people who have not learnt anything yet and are always “too green to be of any real good.” However, unlike most adults, children have not been exposed to the dark, negative, corrupt side of the world yet. They think in simple terms and talk with blatantly direct words, the ones that can be very difficult to prove wrong. When asked to point out what is wrong with apartheid, for example, a scholar might write a hundred pages on the definition, implication, and the society’s respond to apartheid complete with research and survey data. When a child is asked the same question, however, a simple answer comes out, “No fair you do this because you’re this color and you do that because you’re that color. No fair.” Was the child’s respond wrong? The answer might be infinitely shorter than that of the scholar’s, but it cut to the chase. It says more about what the question is about than the hundred page report, and it is true. This is a child’s wisdom, the wisdom of directness and pureness.
Children are often regarded as inexperienced, small people who have not learnt anything yet and are always “too green to be of any real good.” However, unlike most adults, children have not been exposed to the dark, negative, corrupt side of the world yet. They think in simple terms and talk with blatantly direct words, the ones that can be very difficult to prove wrong. When asked to point out what is wrong with apartheid, for example, a scholar might write a hundred pages on the definition, implication, and the society’s respond to apartheid complete with research and survey data. When a child is asked the same question, however, a simple answer comes out, “No fair you do this because you’re this color and you do that because you’re that color. No fair.” Was the child’s respond wrong? The answer might be infinitely shorter than that of the scholar’s, but it cut to the chase. It says more about what the question is about than the hundred page report, and it is true. This is a child’s wisdom, the wisdom of directness and pureness.
The vague definition of being “correct” might be difficult to digest in, but in most situations, whether an action is “right” or “wrong” can be distinguished by how the result of that action happens. To be able to see what is best over the current situation, to see the result of a deed before it is done, is the heart of any wisdom. Often this will require experience and the lessons learnt from mistakes, but nothing limits wisdom to them.
Wisdom,
therefore, does not limit its definition to older people. While it is true that
older people has much more time to gain more knowledge, do more thinking,
experienced more mistakes, the pureness of a child can often yield wisdom no
adult can object to. Wisdom is simply being correct, and being wise is the ability
to be consistent of it.
