What does this title, ‘A little learning is a dangerous thing‘ speaks about? Surely on the face of it, it tells that anyone who either studied only half or knew only half of a thing is always dangerous to him/her. Well, at the same time did not someone say that something is better than nothing?
Why do these two great saying are contrary and confusing? When one cannot get a big bungalow, a small house is sufficient for him. This is better than having no house at all. But in the case of learning, die behavior of half learned is always dogmatic. He overestimates his actual knowledge and talent, and thereby underestimates even the wise as fools!
Is that all? Why the great poet Alexander Pope (1688 – 1744) stressed that half learning is dangerous? To throw some light on the subject, it becomes necessary to quote this: supposing a doctor is not competent in his work, what happens? As a result, he diagnoses a patient wrongly and prescribes wrong medicine too.
Image Source: http://missrosen.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/books-glasses.jpg
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Such wrong treatment would be a great peril to the life of a patient. This is no idle example. Many such cases were reported in the newspapers. Once in Hyderabad a doctor had wrongly operated the good eye instead of the one with an impaired vision! This affected the patient adversely and in the end, he lost both the eyes and became total blind!
That’s why there is an amusing saying that ‘Earth swallows a doctor’s mistakes’. This is no stray incident! Recently, there was a hue and cry that the Air Traffic Control (ATC) has done a blunder and a passenger flight and President’s helicopter were about to collide head on in India! This was due to the half-baked knowledge of die staffer!
Likewise, many train accidents too occur. If the points man/cabin man receives two trains in the same track it results in head on collision. A half learned school teacher cannot impart good education to the student community and the school students’ carrier will be spoilt.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
So it becomes important and necessary too that one must be competent in one’s own work, else a wrong thing would not only fetch punishment to the half learned man, but it is sure to endanger the lives of other persons too. Right, it is said, is more precious than peace! So, let’s always try to be right.