Put on the Cap

It's November 8th. Don't know what that means, well then I have a hat for you! Today is Dunce Day. Today marks the death of the medieval scholar Dus Scotus. Who is he? He is the original creator of a large cone shaped cap.

You see, Dus Scotus believed that cone shaped caps increased learning potential. He thought that knowledge would flow from the point of the cap down into the head of the wearer, making the person smarter. Of course this has never been proved to be scientifically possible (although I like the idea) and so all that was ever accomplished with the Dunce cap, as it was later named, was the person wearing the cap was, well, a dunce.

There have been positive outcomes of the cap though. It has been believed that the wearing of the cap motivated the 'dunce' to learn more, so they could rid themselves of the cap. So I guess, in turn, the cap has served the purpose of causing someone to learn more!