Don’t forget what it’s like to be a child

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, July 25, 2000

"I admit that twice two makes four is an excellent thing, but if we are to give everything its due, twice two makes five is sometimes a very charming thing, too.

Tuesday, July 25, 2000

"I admit that twice two makes four is an excellent thing, but if we are to give everything its due, twice two makes five is sometimes a very charming thing, too." – Fyoder Dostoevsky

Email newsletter signup

Skyler, the young loon in the late Jeff MacNelly’s comic strip, was forever a student in Miss Fishbreath’s sixth-grade class. He was also the namesake for our youngest, our very own Skyler, who will be in sixth grade himself in two years.

Miss Fishbreath once asked Skyler what nine times seven equaled.

"Somewhere between 53 and 67." he answered.

I think the loon Skyler would have enjoyed Dostoevsky, and Dostoevsky would have enjoyed Skyler.

I think our Skyler would have gotten along with both of them.

Our Skyler brought home the following renditions of the following maxims: "If you can’t stand the heat move to Minnesota" (this was a winter assignment); "Two’s company, three’s an odd number;" "You have nothing to fear but my sister;" "A squeaky wheel needs oiling."

Aren’t kids wonderful. We were – weren’t we – as children?

Shouldn’t we expect the same of our children?

Or do we only see children as trouble makers?

Last week Norman Nelson stopped by the news desk, the day after the Herald ran the item on the boy who discovered a wallet containing $100 that he and his mother brought to the Law Enforcement Center uniting the owner with the wallet.

Norman asked politely, "Why this wasn’t on the front page?"

He went on to say that if a young person did something wrong, it would no doubt make the front page.

Norman is an exception it seems to me. An older adult advocating for the goodness in youth even though identifying his own youth by saying, "I never seen a halo over my head when I looked in the mirror."

My uncle, Tony Winkels, once said, "If you followed every kid around all the time, eventually they would all be in some kind of trouble." He wasn’t proclaiming their badness he was saying kids are normal.

I remember when I was teaching sixth grade, just like Miss Fishbreath, and the school year was coming to end. The students would be advancing to the junior high. Our task, as teachers, was to write them up, make a notation on his or her permanent file about what the next teachers could expect. The thought of this struck me as repugnant – for each of them I wrote "normal."

Of course, in later years, I posted a picture of a bunch a beavers lined up with one of them dressed in rather strange attire. The caption read "Why be normal?"

Speaking of children, as you read this I will be treking through Southern California with our three, each with their own unique personality, probably each with a different destination in mind.

As I write this I am looking forward to our journey together.

This may change once we arrive.

Before Norman stopped by, I was intending to write my column about childhood heroes. Most of mine were older youth – friends of my big brother. The ones that stood out took the time to acknowledge me and took the time to include me in their world. It doesn’t take a lot.

My dad, who always seemed to be working both at work and at home did take time to play catch with me and that, in its quiet, almost wordless way, meant much to me.

Now I play catch with our children and take walks. Now they’re growing older, as I did, and friends occupy their lives more and more. We can’t ignore these precious moments.

We men have to remember that dads too make a difference.

And yes, I have to agree with Norman, we are quick to note what kids do wrong or what kids do to offend us, but we don’t always do enough to show our appreciation of their day to day living.

I’ve yet to see a young person not respond to a "hi" and a smile.

Was it Robert Lewis Stevenson who said it was the responsibility of children to explore and question life. I think it is our responsibility, as adults, to encourage this.

Carol Bly says, "We must teach our children to be madly expressive."

Then, our good friend, Albert Einstein, joins us with children when he said, "The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives." Thus giving us permission to get down on our hands and knees in the back yard with a child to see what’s going on under that big rock near the garden.