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<h5 style="padding-left: 420px;">Photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/lfl/">LFL16</a></h5>
<strong>Last night we ate beans and rice for dinner, with some hearty family conversation on the side: The Difference Between Wisdom and Knowledge.</strong>

It's not like we always talk about Big Topics over dinner, but we do try to encourage asking one another questions about our day. Jason, who works for an illustration company whose primary market is college-level textbook publishers, was telling Q (11) and S (9) about some of his research and ideas regarding the future of textbooks.

"Will that kind of textbook be done by the time I'm in college?" S asked. When Jason said yes, she teased, "I'll be so much smarter than both of you!" Then she added, joking, "I already am."

"What?!" I asked in mock indignation.

"Well, I know a lot of things you don't know."

It's hard to argue with that. S is a lover of science—the natural world, especially. She has all kinds of facts crammed into her brain that quite possibly have never even taken up short-term residence in mine.

"You know more about certain things, in a certain way," Jason replied, kindly sticking up for us, "but we're smarter than you in other ways. <strong>It's not really about what you know, it's about how you're able to use it.</strong>"

That's how we started talking about wisdom and knowledge. We asked the girls if they understood the difference between the two. (Talking to the kids about what certain words mean—words that I know and use, but haven't stopped to <em>really</em> think about—is one of my favorite things about having kids.)

"Knowledge has the word 'know' in it, so I think it's just what you can know," S said.

<strong>"Wisdom has to do with what you understand about the whole world, not just little parts of the world,"</strong> Q said, thinking out loud. "You have to be able to use what you know in a world where people think differently about things."

<strong>"It's partly what you know and partly your opinion, mixed together,"</strong> S said. "You get to add what you feel. But not everyone has to feel the same as you."

"And that's what I'm trying to do with textbooks—get beyond just the information," Jason said. <strong>"You can have all kinds of information, but if you don't know how to apply it, it doesn't do you any good."</strong>

Then the girls got out their dictionaries to see how close we were to "right" (they used the Intermediate Dictionary by ScottForesman and The American Heritage Dictionary). Here's what they found:
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>Knowledge: </em><em>n. what you know; all that is known or can be learned; that which is known; the sum or range of what has been perceived, discovered or inferred.</em></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>Wisdom: n. knowledge and good judgment based on experience; understanding of what is true, right or lasting.</em></p>

<h4>In the end, words will be words, kids will be kids</h4>
Our big conversation was pretty much over, at that point. The girls asked to be excused from the table, then they crawled around with Maeve, acting like dogs and confusing her greatly. They helped with laundry folding and dishes. Then we ate popsicles as we walked to the park, where Jason spun and flung them wildly on the tire swing. <strong>They were purely kids—kids who happen to know quite a bit, but who still very much need their parents to help them navigate the world.</strong>

Later, after they were in bed, Jason and I talked more about the dinner conversation. "Wisdom can't really be taught, it has to be gradually accumulated. But are there ways to nurture and accelerate that process?" Jason wondered. <strong>"Are there ways to incubate wisdom?"</strong>

According to Saint Augustine, probably not. <strong>"Patience is the companion of wisdom,"</strong> Augustine wrote. I'm guessing he would say we shouldn't try to speed it up. We can hold it up to the light, though, and examine it together. <strong>We can also celebrate and reward wisdom, as we patiently watch it unfurl in our kids. I'm in no hurry.</strong>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal, and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom.</em> ~Charles H. Spurgeon</p>