August 02, 2007

The first step in learning

A few hours ago, I was showing Mariana the proportion between the Earth and the Sun with a simple Power Point Slide Show my sister sent me this morning. My mom was with us combing Mariana's hair. I told Mariana something like: "This is our Sun and Earth (next slide) ...and this is our Sun compared with another suns all around the Galaxy..."

My mom, having heard this, was like: "No way!!!... There are more than one sun?!!!"

Obviously, Mariana and I were totally astonished... My mom, a 25 years teacher, doesn't know that stars are other planetary systems suns... even my 7 year old daughter knows it... but my mom didn't.

Now, I'm not writing this to make fun of my mom. At all. I'm writing this because she, at her 51 years old, didn't know this. I asked her what did she think that stars were, and she simply replied: "I've never thought about it"

The lesson my mom taught me tonight is that there are a million things that I don't know because I've never wonder about them, because I simply take 'em for granted.

I explained both my mom and Mariana about the different sizes and ages of stars and now they both now a bit more about it. Now I'm happy because I know that my mom will look up to the sky next time and wonder about far away suns... night will never be the same for her from tonight on. That's the first step in learning: To find out that we ignore something.

1 comment:

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