Bursting with Pride

I know every parent thinks their kids are brilliant, but sometimes I have to wonder. This is an actual conversation I had with Connor (my oldest son) tonight. As a backdrop, we were watching a History Channel special on the seven wonders of the world.

Connor: Are they talking about petroglyphs?

Dad: I think so. What are petroglyphs?

Connor: It’s writing carved in rocks a long, long time ago.

Dad: WOW! That’s exactly what petroglyphs are, how do you know that?

Connor: It’s one of my spelling words.

Dad: Do you always learn what your spelling words mean?

Connor: Yes, but we learn other words too. Like “typical” means what usually happens.

Dad: So you have vocabulary words too?

Connor: How did you know what they’re called?

Dad: We had vocabulary words when I was in school too.

Connor: Were there dinosaurs when you were in school.

Dad: Ha ha. Yeah, there were a few.

Connor: Na uh. ’cause then you’d be extinct.

Dad: Were there sharks when there were dinosaurs

Connor: Yes

Dad: Are they extinct?

Connor: No

Dad: Then why would I have to be extinct if I went to school with Dinosaurs?

Connor: Dad, Sharks were in the water when the asteroids hit and the lava came, so the rocks and lava couldn’t hurt them.

Dad: Crocodiles live on land most of the time.

Connor: Some must have been in the water when the lava came, so some of them survived. People used to live in the water too until some came on land and grew legs.

Dad: Do you learn this stuff in school.

Connor: Some of it, but there was a show about Earth a long time ago when you let me stay up late and watch the Discovery channel last week.

There you have it. Who says kids shouldn’t stay up late, and who says television rots the brain? I wish I was that smart!

“Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth — more than ruin — more even than death…. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man.”
–Bertrand Russell (1872 – 1970)