Who is the ignorant one; the person being called ignorant or the person doing the calling? How does someone believe they are more intelligent than those they call ignorant? Do they decide it by a piece of paper they hold in their hands? Do they believe themselves smarter and better because of the education they have and the people they know and associate with?
There was a president of a local college that inherited a large piece of land that he believed was nearly worthless. It had no timber to speak of, no minerals to mind, poor soil and couldn't be farmed; it was only an expense in the form of taxes paid on it every years.
One day an "uneducated" man was driving through the property on the highway that the state build through it when he noticed how the property was set nicely atop of a mountain offering a wonderful view for miles around; he also took notice of the many small pine trees and samplings on the property.
The "uneducated" man purchased fifty acres of the property for $10 an acre in the early 1900s; near the highway the man built a log hose with a large dining room. Near the house he constructed a gas station and along the road he built a dozen single-room log houses. The log houses he rented out to the people in the near-by city that wanted to get away for the weekend.
The following year he build fifty more log homes with 3 rooms each which all rented out during the summer to the people from the local city. The building material cost him nothing as he used the trees on the property to build the log homes.
The unique design of the rustic log homes that many would complain having as a permanent home was desired for weekend getaways and served to enhance the advertisement of the resort.
So much for being worthless as a well educated college president believed it to be. So who truly was the educated person here; the college president with the PhD or the "uneducated" man that turned something "worthless" into something extremely valuable?
This same "uneducated" man, not more than five miles away, purchased what the original owner believed to be a worked-out farm for $25 an acre (remember we are talking early 1900s here) which the owner thought was a high price to pay for the farm.
This "uneducated" man built a dam on the property and flooded 15 acres of land, stocked it with fish, and sold off lots for building summer lake homes; he accomplished this project all in one summer.
Isn't it amazing how this man is thought of as "uneducated" and the college president thought of as educated; who would you rather be? Personally I'd rather have the insight and skills of the "uneducated" man over the college president.
Education is not in the books, colleges and universities; it's not measured in the number of pieces of paper you hold saying you are intelligent; education is measured by the skill you have to succeed with the knowledge you possess and in the ability for you to use the knowledge those around you posses in ways that produce success and profit.
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