This is what Sor Juana wrote: “I do not study in order to write, nor far less in order to teach […], but simply to see whether by studying I may become less ignorant.” For the first and foremost desire to lessen her ignorance, not to gain power over anyone, Sor Juana had this broad interest in learning everything from anything she could, ranging from literature to physics, to maths, and so on. Yes, in our view now an impressively intelligent Sor Juana was more powerful with such broad knowledge; but is not it the thought itself – study to become less ignorant – more powerful? Now I wonder what I go to school for. And a question for you too – What brings you to school?

An answer other than “to get a degree”, “to advance my career”, “to be promoted”, “to get a good job”, and the like is far less satisfactory for a truly intellectual mind. The reality is we have become very practical, so much so that praticality erases our path to much of knowledge, the one thing we declare we want to gain after several years in college. We pick a major, say accounting, and most of the courses we take and are going to take are those necessary for such a major. Of course if you graduate, then knowledge in accounting is what you possess. The question is “are you now confident that you are no longer ignorant?” I wish I were but the truth disappoints me deeply – knowledge simply does not contain itself in one particular area. A shallow well cannot hold much water.

In this very particular part of the world today, we have free access to knowledge and information and yet we are not going crazy for it. While Sor Juana lived in an extremely restricted time, she had this thirst for anything that will open up her world, her understanding of the world. I observe that we tend to want what we do not yet have. A funny thought – should our freedom to knowledge be taken away so that we have the hunger for it again?