Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Purely Unscientific

So on Sunday I created a post about my 5 year old's thoughts and ramblings. One of the phrases that Ruth really like was the part about living in a "purely unscientific world." I got to thinking about this last night and I made basically a list poem of things that children (mostly my children) make up as their "scientific" reasoning. I came up with quite a list, I thought I'd place it here:

-If you keep the caught frog, his mommy will miss him.
-The stars are here for wishing.
-Every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings.
-Thunder is God bowling in heaven
-Watching the light on the refrigerator, does it go off or stay on?
-The moon says good morning to the sun
-If you plant an apple seed you will get apples
-If you swallow a watermelon seed it will grow in your belly
-Wearing no coat will cause a cold
-Whenever you are cold, cocoa will make you feel better
-If you open your eyes during prayer, you will get diarrhea (Okay, this is from my childhood. I had a friend who told me that once and I absolutely believed her!)



So then today I read this book to my students:


My students know this information already. I didn't have unscientific responses to the questions that are within this book. If I asked my 5 year old daughter and my almost 7 year old I am sure that I would get completely different responses. Not just because my youngest daughter doesn't know this knowledge but I think it is because at this age she still believes these things. So when do they lose this ability to ignore the scientific? When do they start to answer questions like "how do the flowers know when to come up in the spring?" or "What is snow?"
I can go back to the purely unscientific world but I have to choose to do so, she lives there daily. I choose to go there for my creativity, my nostalgia, and my sense of play. When I am back in this world my seven year old just rolls her eyes and says, "Mooom!" She knows I know, the other one doesn't. So when do we lose it and why do we fight so hard to lose it?

2 comments:

Jen Barney said...

Sarah- Maybe that is our problem, we haven't lost it yet. hehehe!
I live in that world more than I do the "real" one- it's just too much fun to leave it!

Ruth Ayres said...

what a great list! i jotted your phrase in my writer's notebook & have been fighting to keep the purely unscientific in the forefront of my life. It is good to play and to remember there's more to life than the rules of it all.