Underestimating Children

*Note: This is not Audrey - this is Joseph, the other half of this blog, and the one drowning in schoolwork. Thus, the infrequency of my posts...

Underestimating children.

One of the most difficult parts of being a teacher is figuring out how much rigor my students can handle. Unfortunately, I think that I often err on the side of making my curriculum too easy, rather than too rigorous. I find that I occasionally make the same mistake in the education of my own children. As a result, I sometimes end up looking a little foolish.

For example, Audrey and I recently drove through Yellowstone National Park with our children. We, of course, stopped at Old Faithful geyser. Because the geyser currently erupts only about once per hour, we had to wait for a few minutes before the eruption began. Our boys spent these few minutes sliding around on the icy boardwalk and falling down a lot, while Audrey and I joined the gathering crowd of onlookers watching the whisps of steam that are constantly escaping from the geyser between eruptions.

Suddenly, about two minutes before the eruption, Austin stopped his sliding, turned to me, and initiated the following exchange:

A - "Daddy, where da hole?"(translation - "where is the geyser?")

J - (Attempting to use terminology that would make sense to a 4-year old) "Over there where the smoke is coming out of the ground"

A - (With a look that conveyed utter disgust at my stupidity) "Dat not smoke, dat hot water!"

Foolish Daddy.

I was rewarded with hearty laughter from the nearest onlookers.

Maybe kids are smarter than we think they are.