I remember once attending a parent’s evening atmy son’s school. At one point I found myself chatting to an amiable young man whom I assumed to be a pupil – he looked so young. I asked him how he was enjoying the school and what his aspirations were for the future. Following our conversation my son took me to one side and said, “Dad, that was my Latin master!” I had made the classic error of acting on an untested assumption. Had I taken the time to check things out, I would not have made my blunder. As a lecturer, I did my best to teach this principle to my students. I would write the word ‘ASSUME’ in large red letters on a whiteboard. Then I would take my pen and draw a vertical line after the second s. Whilst drawing a second vertical line after the letter u, I would say, “Always remember that when we make an untested
assumption, it makes an ‘ASS’ out of ‘U’ and ‘ME’! Perhaps you have your own stories of times when you failed to properly check things out. Such times remind us to ‘look before we leap’ and to be ready to question both our own assumptions and the assumptions of others. Assume nothing – test everything!