ABSTRACT
We are born ignorant, but for many years we inhabit a world where ignorance is a failing that is not shared by everyone.We presume that our parents, our teachers and even our older siblings or friends have the answers to the questions that puzzle us. In this situation-a situation that usually persists through primary, secondary and even undergraduate education-we look to our elders and our betters to enlighten us, and we demonstrate our own worth by showing that we, too, are now masters of what we once held for mysteries. Any remaining ignorance is to be hidden, and children quickly learn the tricks for doing so: steering the subject to matters more familiar; quoting an authority, whether real or imagined; brazening it out in the hope that we will reach the goal safely without revealing our ignorance; spreading around words that knowledgeable people use and ignorant people do not, whether or not we know what they mean. Small children use these tricks on their parents and on each other; undergraduates and, alas, adults use them, often at only a slightly higher level of sophistication, on their teachers, on each other and on themselves.
