Aha! This is the type of response I was searching for to see if anyone hit on this. IE: Define common sense. How many times have you been in a religious or political debate. Do you feel the other side has no common sense or they you? I guess it all depends on what one sees as common sense FIRST, and THEN you could decide if it could be taught or not.

Many people think jumping out of a perfectly good airplane lacks common sense too, but I've always wanted to try it.

I don't define common sense as someone who doesn't have the same knowledge or beliefs as I do.

To me, someone who is book smart, but has no common sense, would be someone who graduated high school with honors, but can't "get" a simple pun or joke. Someone who has a masters degree, but basic things just "escape" them-like following the directions to assemble a baby toy.

My brother, for instance, is working on his masters degree-but has to have my parents bail him out all the time because he can't handle basic life skills like driving without getting into a car accident, keeping a job, or paying his bills.

To me common sense is knowing that you should not stick a knife in a toaster, to get stuck toast out, if it is plugged in!

My brother in law once told me "Common sense can go either way."

So there you have it.

[QUOTE=EZMONEY;1852422]To me common sense is knowing that you should not stick a knife in a toaster, to get stuck toast out, if it is plugged in!


Out of the mouth of babes!

I believe you just described what common sense is, and look you even showed you have commen sense by what you said! LOL

Ooh, nice topic. I think that some people have a predisposition to things that are risky (jumping off the monkey bars), but they can eventually learn from consequences. I also think common sense is relative, that what makes perfectly good common sense to an artist might be very different from what makes perfectly good sense to a plumber.

I cringe when I hear someone say "you might be book-smart, but you don't have any common sense". This was often heard in my family and it was considered an insult. It also seemed to show insecurity of those who opted to not pursue more education. I also think the two are not mutually exclusive - plenty of book-smart people have lots of common sense.

It sounds like common sense could be, on the Myers-Briggs scale, the difference between an intuitive (N) and a sensing (S) person. "S" people are going to appear to have a lot more "common sense" than the "N" people.

The definition of common sense is: "The native ability to make sound judgment" Websters II Dictionary.

Either you have it or you don't. You can probably teach common sense, but it's just like teaching someone right from wrong. They'll either do what's right or do what's wrong despite what they've learned.

I agree with that statement 100%-and that is how I think of the definition of common sense.