Monday morning ramble:
How often does glancing at the side of a kitchen trash bag make you think about peoples' intelligence?
I bought a cheap brand of trash bag the other day, and went to line my kitchen can with it, when I spotted printing on the side of the bag. Here is what it said:
"Warning: To avoid danger of suffocation, keep away from babies and children."
So, why the entry on something that seems so meaningless and common-sense? Simply because of the fact that the warning is actually on the bag. And what does that have to do with intelligence? It may mean that some people out there don't actually know how much harm plastic bags can do.
This should be a learned common fact by the time we even hit grade school. Years ago, the warnings would come from parents or guardians: "Don't do this," etc. Most of us, I'm sure, have been taught wisely thanks to the teachings & advice our parents or guardians gave us. We would know not to do anything obviously dumb as stick our heads in plastic bags, because we knew the dangers of suffocation.
But what has happened to the teaching? Why is the teaching scrawled on the side of a plastic bag? Does this mean that people out there truly don't know about the danger? If not, then why haven't they been told?
I can see the validity of warning labels on chemical bottles, describing what can happen and, in many cases, how to treat an accident while calling a doctor. But when it comes to something as obvious as a trash bag, it's possible there's not been enough teaching going on.
One semi-humorous sidebar to this one, though: I support the idea of road signs featuring symbols rather than words, because many people either can't read or simply don't know the English language. Symbol signs are universal and they may be a big help.
But symbols are not necessarily welcome in publications like instruction books, for instance. We have two television entertainment centers in the house, and they were frustrating to assemble, because the manual had pictures, no words. Plus, the pictures were so small and some of the ink so blurry, half the assembly process was guesswork.
I'd rather appreciate worded instructions versus visual. This does not claim that I have no intelligence quotient; I can read and decipher pictures. But when it comes to assembly, not everyone can tell the one inch screw from the 1 1/4". Distinct labeling would really help the cause.
As is, we haven't lost a TV yet due to a rickety cabinet, which means Steve and I pulled through on assembly.
It's just those three-time-per-year television returns to the rental company that make up for any "accidents".
