Common sense isn’t dead, it was never alive

Every single day I hear someone say how common sense is gone, dead. Typically this comment is said from an older person about a younger person or from a person reviewing an action another person did that had an unfortunate result.  Being a safety professional myself, there is no phrase that bothers me more than “common sense”. Common sense was never a thing and the catchphrase should be dead; the proper expression is common knowledge.

Common sense, by definition, means an ability we all have and are born with, similar to our other senses like sight, hearing and touch. With common sense though, that is definitely not the case. I have two young boys around the house and, as anyone who has spent any time with kids can relate, they are constantly putting themselves in danger in common sense ways. The other day I had to run to my toddler calling for me as he had climbed up on the top of his dresser and was stuck. I can’t even remember how many times I have informed the boys not to touch knives, as they are sharp and can cut them. Every parent has had to run over to their child as they hold a fork close to an electrical outlet and we all see kids running on the streets without looking both ways.  I have shared these stories with friends and someone said that the boys were lacking common sense. How could they? They didn’t know about those specific hazards and they haven’t learned the common knowledge, which this person thought they should have been born with.

A colleague of mine gave me the best story about common sense and common knowledge. He was on a good will trip that was bringing stove tops and generators to some non-developed areas. It was a great success; they were able to get the stoves and generators installed and working and had taught the people how to turn them on and off. The next week they received numerous reports of people burning their hands on the stove top elements. It should have been common sense not to touch the elements, but these people did not know elements would stay hot after the pan was removed. No one in their community had that knowledge. Compare this to here at home; I am constantly reminding my boys how hot the stove is and how they should never touch the top as it might be hot.

The same line of thought expands into the workplace and to a lot of workplace incidents. “Oh, you know that employee didn’t have any common sense and hurt themselves doing this task”. “They should have known that would cause an injury”. Nobody tries to hurt themselves; it is a lack of the common knowledge or of the hazards around them. They just didn’t know.

Common sense isn’t dead, it was never alive. Common knowledge is alive. For that knowledge to be common, we all must ensure we keep sharing it with everyone to help keep them safe.