When I think back to what I learned in school, it’s funny what stands out. Like Eli Whitney and the cotton gin. It’s the strangest thing, but if you ask around, just about everybody knows who Eli Whitney was, because they learned it in school. Looking back, it seems kind of random, though. I mean, sure, he was a significant person whose invention had a profound impact on the economy of the South as well as the course of slavery (I think, but I’m reaching a bit far into my memory bits here), but surely there were many other names, many other inventions. Why was this considered such an essential piece of the national curriculum that just about every single person I know, over the age of 50 at least, knows this one fact?

It just speaks to the relative randomness of what we teach, what we as a society deem meaningful, important, essential, worthy of being passed on, from one generation to the next.

Here’s another name and item that I remember from school: Thomas Paine and his powerful treatise, “Common Sense.” Now, I can’t recall any of the actual text of that document, but I remember its title and I remember its author. Maybe because the title was so simple, so familiar a phrase that I was able to remember it. If it really is “common sense,” maybe I could even understand it!

Which brings me to a pointed question, one that we generally don’t directly teach in school: What actually is “common sense”? We may refer to it, we may talk around it, but do we ever actually take the time to tackle it as a subject in and of itself? Should we? Could we?

“Common sense” has taken a bit of a beating in recent years, just going by how many times we have all heard it said that common sense is “anything BUT common”? Because yes, the behaviors we see around us might leave one to question its fundamental existence. People are crazy! Yes, considering the apparent absence of common sense in so much of our public and private lives, perhaps it’s time to take a closer look at the teaching of common sense.

Start by asking yourself this question: Is there such a thing as “common sense?” Is there a “sense” that we all possess, a sense of deeper knowing, that we were given at birth? What do you think?

If you simply ask the question, what does my common sense tell me, you can feel the switch. The trouble often comes when we forget that this common sense belongs to us. We look outside of ourselves for answers. Now, when it comes to gathering information, it’s a good thing we know how to search for answers. But when it comes to living and leading our lives, we need to look deeper.

Imagine teaching this to our children. To inform them that they are in possession of an inner compass that is, while not foolproof, a good and helpful resource that can serve them throughout their lives. And not only do they possess this wisdom, so do all the people they know, they just may not realize it.

Maybe if we took the time to actually teach common sense, what it is and where to find it, we could end up in a world that was guided more by wisdom than by impulse, led more by heart than head. Hidden in plain sight, common sense can be accessed by simply turning our attention to our inner lives, learning the tools of self-reflection and quietude.

That’s a teaching both profoundly simple and deeply radical, one that has the potential to usher in a new age.

Gay Collins is a retired Waterford Public Schools teacher with a master’s degree from Connecticut College who lives in Preston. She can be reached at yagspill@gmail.com.