plain, ordinary wonder

Josh has found something exciting. Electronics, appealing in the form of a door alarm. We've bought kits off and on through the past few years, which he had been interested in. Usually he requested mom or dad to help, and we did with smiles. At his peer program, they worked for two days on wiring and cutting and pasting cardboard. When it didn't quite work, I offered to take him to Radio Shack (remembering fully how much my baby brother enjoyed that store from age 8 til, hey, now!) So we traveled to the mall, he spent some time digging through the drawers, and talking to the salespeople. He held his own with them, made his choices on wire gauge, LED size, and other accoutrements. At home, he designed his sign, asked me to cut it out, and then worked from five pm to 11 pm. He got a complete circuit, but decided the light wasn't bright enough (although the buzzer can be heard all over our three floor home). So, he wired three more lights in the circuit, explained to me that they were in series, and that there wasn't enough power from the batteries, and proceeded to figure it out. From his scout book, he has learned all the formulas I remember from E&M, and he's functionally using them. He has very strong interests, ones that others may not approve of, or agree with, but that's not their job. My job is to help my children find their interests, facilitate that interest the best way I can, and create with them a life in which they can be happy and one that they fully appreciate.

From Charles D Hayes, at 'CreatingLearningCommunities.com'
"More to be pitied than those who have fallen through the "educational" cracks are those who have been intellectually lobotomized in the name of learning. Marking time in lives of stultifying mediocrity, with no strong interests in much of anything, they put up with jobs they hate and pretend to enjoy the mindless entertainment they pursue to compensate. Holding elitist status in material possessions, and having far more wealth than eighty percent of the human beings on this planet, such people nevertheless complain about how poorly the world treats them. On nearing the end of their lives, those who have viewed their existence as barely tolerable drudgery begin to panic at the realization that they have never learned to truly think for themselves nor felt the exhilaration of intellectual engagement. Would that all human beings could experience throughout their lives the plain, ordinary wonder of existence that comes through active curiosity."