Beau (9) corrected the question 'What is ethics?' to 'What are
ethics?' and replied: 'Codes of honour. Honesty, politeness,
generosity, loving.' (He is currently interested in King Arthur
and his Knights.) Beau will go to high school next year and will
do Latin and ancient history. These and Shakespeare are current
enthusiasms of his.
Melanie (16) wrote a set of questions on movies. Anna (6) said
that a good movie is funny, like Home Alone. In reply to 'What is
a bad movie?' she said: 'A lot of kissing. The boys don't like
that.' Darby (10) said that people make movies to make a lot of
money. They are not 'thoughtful of other people'. 'Is it fair that
movie stars make more money than doctors or scientists?' Marina
(12) said. 'No. They have a fun job. Being a doctor isn't fun and
watching TV isn't good for us.' Darby though that violent movies
do make people do violent things sometimes 'but before movies were
allowed there was violence'.
Peter (17) said it is unfair that movie stars make more money
than doctors and scientists: 'they probably didn't work any harder
or have more skill than the doctors and scientists'. Melanie
herself answered the question about the fairness of making more
money than doctors and scientists by 'Not really, because doctors
and scientists do more for the world than movie stars but a movie
star's salary is in proportion to how much the movie makes'. She
said that violent movies 'add to the problem' of violence.
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Peter (17) made a set of questions, and was disconcerted at
finding he was later expected to answer them. Gerry (8), replying
to Peter's first question: 'What is a dot?' said: 'A small speck
make by pushing something which has a colour to make a small
circle.' 'What is a line?' 'Something drawing any shape or life.'
'What does it mean to move?' 'To go from one place to another.'
'What is colour?' 'Anything except black, grey or white or
clear.'
Melanie (16) said that a dot is 'a point, or mark', and that a
line is 'a continuous dot that never ends'. Shape is 'what the
perimeter of an object looks like'. Liking different things 'comes
down to opinions, which are caused by experience'.
Melanie made up a set of questions on movies. Ross (10) said
that 'a good movie is adventurous and mysterious and one that
suits you, eg does not influence you with guns and killing'. 'Have
there always been movies?' 'No. The dinosaurs were not intelligent
enough. When Jesus was around people didn't even know what
electricity was. And when my great grandmother was around and she
was a little girl they didn't even have radios.'
Paula (13) said that there have not always been movies:
'People used to put on live plays when there was nothing to record
it with.' 'People make movies as a form of entertainment and
basically to make money.' 'Do violent movies make people do
violent things?' 'It depends if you take them seriously, but I
think after a long time of seeing violence you would start to
think that it was all right to do violent things.'
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A family of home-schooled children, aged 3 to 12, made a set
of questions. Nicholas, aged three, supplied 'Why do tigers eat
people?'
Perry (7) had difficulty with 'What makes an animal an
animal?' His mother suggested that animals do not have flowers.
Perry replied, 'Gymnosperms don't have flowers either. Only
angiosperms have flowers.' His mother did not understand this
statement.
Peter (17) thought the distinction is arbitrary. (I believe
that the answer is that animals eat only organic food. Plants can
make theirs from inorganic elements. Fungi are a separate
class.)
Meaghan (15) answered 'What would happen if there were no
animals?' by 'the balance of plants would be upset. Humans would
have a hard time surviving healthily and might become a bit
lonely. We'd have to grow all our food. Flowers that rely on
insects for pollination (which are most) would die out.'
Nonie (14) replied to 'Are American people richer than
Australian people?' by 'if you were a person who loved an endless
supply of soaps then "Yes". I'm not so sure.'
Several of the children raised the question of the meaning of
"rich" suggesting that whether people had what they needed was
relevant.
Anna (6) answered 'What is a colour?' by 'Not black and white
or real light, like air or water.'
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I had a set of logic questions, headed 'Which of the following
statements mean the same thing?' I hesitated about giving this to
Perry (7), who had not understood last time we did logic, thinking
that he had to discuss the content. This time, however, there was
no hesitation. 'Should I draw lines between the ones that mean the
same?' Perry commented that 'All unfeathered bipeds are human
beings' not only does not mean the same as 'All human beings are
unfeathered bipeds' but is not true. I said I thought it was,
since birds have feathers. Perry pointed out that Kangaroos are
bipeds. Perry commented that 'Sentences 18, 19 and 20 don't mean
the same as anything by themselves, but if you put 18 and 19
together you get the same as 20.' This was correct as the items
were: '18. No sheep are carnivorous animals', '19. All wolves are
carnivorous animals' and 20. No sheep are wolves'.
Perry had a music scholarship at his school, is reading music
theory books spontaneously, is in the choir, and asks to be taken
to concerts.
Ross (10) explained the difference between competition and
co-operation by 'A competition is where you compete with other
people and co-operation is where you don't be naughty.' He said
that 'Not all children co-operate with parents because some
haven't been brought up so well so they keep on doing it.' 'Some
co-operate with teachers but some don't because they haven't got
very good parents and when they do something their parents just go
"stop that" and that doesn't really do anything.' He said that
people in Australia co-operate 'by sharing their ideas with other
people and then picking the best one. (I'm talking about
parliament)'. They also co-operate 'by having votes on what they
are debating about'. Australian people do not always co-operate
with non-Australian people 'because some people think that the
colour of people's skin makes them weird'. 'Could voting exist
without co-operation?' 'No. Because there would be chaos.'
Peter (17) suggested that the book The Kookaburra in the
Jacaranda Tree (Minerva, 1995), a semi autobiographical book by a
former student of mine (Armidale Teachers' College, 1960-61),
would be a good one for HSC students to study.
