"It was hiding behind the clouds, but now it's back," Micah explains.
"It's a quarter-moon," Joel adds. "A quarter is when a number smaller than one and it means you chop one up into smaller pieces." It's not a bad description of fractions. I'm guessing he won't need to understand the concept completely until he is in school.
"Daddy, is that the same moon as yesterday?"
"Yeah, it's the same. The moon is always there."
"So, it's not a new moon?"
"Same moon every night."
"Does it just lose part of itself and grow back?"
"No, it has to do with the light hitting it. Part of the moon is hidden because it's dark."
Joel probably won't understand what I told him just as he doesn't completely understand fractions and, on some level, the sun really does disappear every night. But he loves to learn. It's always relevant to him and he is unashamed about asking questions.
We never tell Joel, "This isn't important, because you won't use it when you are older." It's not about when he is older. It's about now. It's about learning how to learn. Joel never asks me, "How will I use this in a job?" Never. Not once. Joel never asks me, "What will I get for learning this?" What he "gets" is a chance to learn, a journey, a process, a dance. Some days learning will be a meandering trip in the woods and other days it will be an epic that will require a dagger. But if he ever pursues education, I want it to be the way one would pursue a love and not the way one would manage a portfolio.
Perhaps the saddest part about sending my children to school (and I will) is that learning will, at some point, become a commodity. It will become a possession, an investment, a tangible good to be used in exchange for money. If he's not careful, he'll get good grades to go to college and he'll go to college to get a good job and he'll never learn how to ask, "What is good?" because "good" and "goods" don't often intersect.
For now I'm just happy with him asking "What is the moon and why is it disappearing every night?" Keep staring out at the universe, kid, and some day you'll stumble on why we are here.
photo credit
I love the part about the moom possibly losing part of itself and growing back. Back in the day our district made us tell our students (with every lesson) why it was important to learn something and how they would use it in the real world. A lot of kids got to where they would automatically ask "How are we going to use this?" I used to cringe when I heard it.
ReplyDeleteI am reminded of my daughter staring at the moon in the early morning. I asked, "What are you looking at?" She said, "I am waiting for the cow to jump over the moon."
ReplyDeleteYes, kids will grow up and make essential discoveries...
What a terrific post! My daughter is in college now and she is at that point where goods and good don't intersect...sigh
ReplyDeleteMy younger son's first word was "moon."
ReplyDeleteI was reflecting on your comment to Doyle re: textbooks, etc., and it ended with an apology to my younger son. I have been forcing novels down his little gullet, because he is accountable to an all-mighty READING LOG. (Would this be considered a primary document of substantial importance in the future?) I apologized to him, because in reading that comment, and my own, I remembered how much I loved to read informational text, too. I didn't go straight to reading chapter books. Novels are like friends we find along the way, and no one can explain the chemistry we have or don't with books. We talked about the books he has liked - Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Captain Underpants when he was very young, Calvin and Hobbes comic collections, etc. He is going to try to stretch it a bit, but I think he feels a bit more understood now.
Love this post... I know you have another blog besides this one... ever think about dedicating one just to your own children? LOTS of moms out there blogging... not so many dads.
ReplyDeleteTimes like that with small children are fleeting. My son is in fifth-grade, and transition is here. He's still sweet and eager, but I teach older students, so I know what's to come.
ReplyDeleteI love when learning isn't about answering questions on a standardized test for No Child Left Behind and AYP. As a teacher and parent, I try to take the time for those kinds of moments.