more smart thoughts from the under-ten set

In the spirit in which I brought you the questions of Molly's inquisitive three-year-old, I bring you these stories of childhood logic.

aag @ aag writes wryly about her daughter's suspicion in a post titled "and this is why we don't homeschool"

Bear in mind that this is the child who, at the age of four, refused to believe my assertion that letters came in both capital and lowercase varieties. “You’re making that up, mommy!” she said, and would hear no more talk of such foolishness.

I'm sure my mother would sympathize, although in her case I think it was a similar pigheaded stubbornness on my part that convinced her I should not be inflicted on any public school teacher within spitting distance of our house.

The other, courtesy of Hanna who shared it with me on Google Reader, is Michael Holden @ The Guardian recounting a conversation between three children whom he overheard on a bus.

Girl 1 (loudly) "How does hair grow?"

Boy (with complete confidence) "Hair is like magic."

Girl 1 "How do people grow?"

Boy "People grow at night. If you go to bed early, you will grow tall."

Girl 2 "How do buses grow?"

Boy "Buses are just like buses. They don't grow."

Girls (in unison, having sensed an opportunity) "How do traffic lights grow?"

Boy (playing into their hands) "Traffic lights don't grow."

The parental unit in attendance finally got fed up with the entire exchange and called a halt to the proceedings. I don't know . . . I was starting to wonder what pattern was going to emerge. I mean, if hair grows like magic, and people grow at night, what about cats? Is it the night-time that's important, or the sleeping? So do cats grow in the dark, or do they grow when they are napping, even if they are sleeping during the day? These are the questions that must be answered.

In other questions that must be answered, is there a God? Mary Valle @ Killing the Buddha and her six-year-old daughter Margaret found themselves in a conversation about the existence of God over lunch with some friends. Margaret offered this possible solution to the spiritual dilemma of agnosticism: "Sometimes I just say: 'Dear God, if you exist,I forgive you.' "

And finally, not quite a story about the worldviews of the under-tens, but SarahMC @ The Pursuit of Harpyness blogged about a Discovery Health Channel program on "radical parenting," profiling three families that engage in (the ad copy says) "extreme forms of parenting." One of the families apparently engages in a form of unschooling, and I'm kinda tickled that my home-educated childhood could be seen as some sort of extreme sport. Olympics, here I come!

*image credit: candid child by mario bellavite @ Flickr.com