Kids Say The Darnedest Things - Listen and Learn

by Bert Carson

My day job puts me in Day Care Centers an average of 4 days every week, which normally adds up to 30 - 45 hours a week.  That means I get to hear, and often participate in, conversations that I wouldn't otherwise hear or participate in.

I've learned that Art Linkletter was right, kids do say the darnedest things.  And, after listening to those things for a number of years, I have realized why kids say the darnedest things.  Up until a certain age, which varies from child to child, kids see a different world than the one adults see and operate in in.  The basis of a kid's world is memories of the world they've come from - the world William Wordsworth spoke of when he said:

The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home:
Heaven lies about us in our infancy!
Shades of the prison-house begin to close
Upon the growing Boy...                   William Wordsworth - Ode Intimations of Immortality...  The darnedest things part comes when a child attempts to incorporate those rapidly fading memories into the world he or she is being indoctrinated with - the ego world they are building from the bits and pieces we adults are giving them to work with. I've learned a couple of things from my time in day care centers.  First, and maybe most important among them is, when a child is sharing memories of those places he or she recalls from before they found themselves in this place, listen to what they are saying.  As they talk, let your consciousness drift back in time to the place they are speaking of, after all, you were once there.  In your recollection, allow yourself to live again with the wonder you had before you confined your consciousness to the box you constructed from adult misinformation.  The box you call, Things I Believe. And second, don't give a child information you have not verified in your personal experience.  They already have a lot of erroneous information to deal with, and its constantly pouring into their consciousness like the Niagara Rivers cascades over the three famous falls that we collectively call Niagara Falls.  Surprise, there is no Niagara Falls, in spite of what we have been told.  See how easy it is to receive and pass on bad information.  Don't do that to our children.  They do not need you or me or the nightly news adding to their misinformation load.