H2O, and other heady stuff

"H2O and other heady stuff. That is what we need to teach our youngins. They have hungry minds and want to learn. Time to teach them. No more failure factories. Time to hop on the 'new roads' of global opportunity. And maybe it starts with just learning about water."    

H2O. Water. Aqua. Since we had the grandies for a Covid quarantine week, I decided that First Grade was high time for the boy to stretch and grow. Since he is now into youth hocky and skates on frozen water, this was a good time to discuss just what water is. And where is a better place to start, than what it is made of. 

Sitting at the kitchen table, I asked him if he had ever heard the term H2O used for water. He had not. He had however, heard of water referred to as aqua. Some Spanish lingo taught in his charter school. But not H2O. So it was up to the old grandpa to explain that to him. But - I needed a "hook" to get him interested.

"Did you know that H2O means each bit of water (too young to explain what a molecule is), contains two parts of Hydrogen and one part of Water? With that I received a blank stare. Then came the "hook". "Guess what else has a lot of Hydrogen in it? The sun. In fact, most of the sun in made up of Hydrogen." Now he was interested. "Don't you find it interesting that both the sun and water are made up of the same stuff?" Now his wheels were starting to turn.

What is my point in all of this jibber jab? Education. How to educate young kids. A young man who recently spoke at our church is a missionary to Bosnia. He told us something interesting in a small group. The education system in Bosnia is much more taxing than ours is. More demanding. Deeper. Much more demanding that our antiquated system. Reminded me of a cruise we took to the Caribbean, when we talked to some local folks from a small island nation. They start their kids in school when they are 2 years old. This little, tiny island country. Another small island country start their kids when they are 3. By 16, the kids are done with high school, and ready for college.

Our education system is like driving an old car on new roads. An old car with bald tires and burning oil. The new roads are the global opportunities which are available to all. Education Minnesota has held our education system hostage for way too long. They are keeping too many kids off the "new roads" of opportunity. We have too many failure factories in the inner cities. Our kids can learn more, and learn more quicker. Home schooled kids do very well, thank you. As do private schooled kids. Or even Catholic schooled kids. Some government schooled kids do okay, buy many do not.

H2O and other heady stuff. That is what we need to teach our youngins. They have hungry minds and want to learn. Time to teach them. No more failure factories. Time to hop on the "new roads" of global opportunity. And maybe that journey starts with just learning about water at an early age.