A Child's Learning Journey

While walking back from getting water at work, I suddenly recalled something random of my childhood. and I just felt like penning it down before the insights go away, like the many that I have before....

I remembered when I was little, my parents' bedroom has this big wardrobe with two full-length mirrors. I was rather fascinated with the mirrors because they are acting as doors to the wardrobe. so you can fold and tilt them towards one another, and you can see multiple dimensions of yourself in the mirror. it was pretty cool.

but i recalled that for a period of time, i would run across the bedroom, jump in and out of the front of the mirrors. basically i was looking at my reflections. why? because of a stupid reason.

I knew the reflection will moves at the same time as I move. But I know in an absolute relative term, my reflection will always be slower than me. Light has to travel from my body, to the mirrors, back to my eyes, and have me process the visual inputs before I can 'see' my reflection move. So in an attempt to see that relative 'lag', I tried moving in and out of the front of the mirror, hoping to at least see the 'lag'. it's stupid, but at my age, i was pretty much mentally and physically consumed over the act.

and then i thought, what if someone told me straight in the face that it's not possible? reason being light travels at a light speed. haha... but ya, what if someone told me that? are they expecting me to just nod my head in acknowledgement and recognize that it's a dumb, useless, nonsensical thing to do? and then spoil all my fun??? haha..

what i want to say is this... kids should be allowed to do dumb things. they should be given the freedom to explore the world in which ever realms they ponder upon. they should be given the chance to makes mistakes, so they can learn. like the pain receptors that humans have, those sensations of pain teach us what is harmful, what is not. and for those who unfortunately do not possess pain receptors, they tend not to live that long, and hurt themselves more, sometimes they don't even realize they're hurt. so yup, i was thinking to myself... if my kids do dumb things in future, and no matter how nonsensical that may seem, if i feel they will have fun exploring or learn something from it, i will just sit by the side and observe them =) but somehow i got another image of my dearest yn telling the kids not to do stupid things when they do. hahaha...

back to work.