This afternoon I took a break from the daily routine and spent a few hours walking through the American Museum of Natural History. As I walked up to the entrance on Central Park West, I saw a line of yellow school buses and I knew my plans for a peaceful & quiet wander were not going to happen today.
If you want your faith in the future shaken, spend 10 minutes watching a group of fifty 3rd graders descend on the Reptiles & Amphibians floor! But if you want that faith restored and strengthened… come back 10 minutes later when they have made their way to the Ocean Life Gallery and come face-to-face with a 94-foot blue whale hanging from the ceiling.
There’s nothing quite like it. The playful rough-housing stops, the arguments stop, and for a good 5-7 minutes, there’s pure childlike wonder and awe. “What is that?! How did they get it up there?! How big is it?! Where is it from?!”
The teachers love it. The parent chaperones love it. The museum security guard loves it. The tourists love it. I love it. And we tell those kids to keep asking questions, to keep reading, to keep writing, to keep learning and most importantly…
To stay in school.
Many of them do just that. They grow up to be tax-and-tuition paying citizens in our nation’s colleges and universities. And from time to time, events cause them to take a pause from their regular shenanigans to look more closely at something big in front of them.
And once again, they’ve got questions. “What is this?! Why is this happening?! Where did this come from?! Who co-signed this?!”
This time the questions are less cute. This time the answers are not hanging nearby on plaques and displays on the wall. This time the adults love the moment a lot less.
How adults respond to the questions of our young people has a significant impact on the way the future turns out. Please keep this in mind as we watch this University Of Missouri situation unfold.
– Day G.
Host, Class of Hope & Change