I just heard that line in a documentary that I was watching. It struck me. We can have a “grade school” understanding of many things, and that’s not a bad thing necessarily. Hopefully, we start to develop understanding of many things at higher levels, but no matter how much we learn, we might still maintain a grade school understanding of certain things.
It’s interesting that in grade school everything is so general. The higher you get, the more specialized you become. In college you pick a major, and you become that major (another great identity post idea). Then in a Master’s degree program, you specialize even further. In your doctorate, you’re asked to study for years on one question – in detail.
It’s not possible to have that level of scrutiny and understand of everything on that level. Sometimes, you just maintain a grade school level of understanding. That’s not a bad thing.