Little Xerxes* loitered at the end of my lesson last week. He is a pensive child who is constantly frowning, as though he is thinking about something really thorny.
X: Miss, can I ask you a phipholosical question?
Me: A philosophical question?
X: Oh, yes, a [slowly and carefully] phil lo foss ick al question.
Me: Of course, X - go ahead.
X: Well, I was wondering....how did we decide that down is, well, down?
Imagine my face. Go on, I dare you.
Me: Erm....
X: I mean, imagine if the person who came up with it decided that up was down instead of down being down, and then we'd have everything facing the other way, and it would all be, yknow, upside down.
Me: Um, well X, I think that maybe we didn't decide that down was down. I think maybe gravity decided that down was down.
X: (face clears of frown momentarily) Oh! GRAVITY! Of course!
Me: (calling after him as he walks out of the door) It may be something you want to ask your science teacher about...
Next week I'm going to ask him how he knows that the colour he sees as blue is the same as the colour I see as blue; the week after: can you jump in the same river twice?
* not his real name, but not far off.
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