"Get Out of Their Way"

04/28/2023

The greatest sign of success for a teacher…is to be able to say, “The children are now working as if I did not exist."
Maria Montessori, 1870-1952, physician and educator

“I’m often asked by parents what advice can I give them to help get kids interested in science," says Neil deGrasse Tyson, "And I have only one bit of advice. Get out of their way. Kids are born curious. Period. I don’t care about your economic background. I don’t care what town you’re born in, what city, what country. If you’re a child, you are curious about your environment. You’re overturning rocks. You’re plucking leaves off of trees and petals off of flowers, looking inside, and you’re doing things that create disorder in the lives of the adults around you."

DeGrasse Tyson continues, "And so then so what do adults do? They say, 'Don’t pluck the petals off the flowers. I just spent money on that. Don’t play with the egg. It might break. Don’t…' Everything is a don’t. We spend the first year teaching them to walk and talk and the rest of their lives telling them to shut up and sit down. So you get out of their way. And you know what you do? You put things in their midst that help them explore. Help ‘em explore. Why don’t you get a pair of binoculars, just leave it there one day? Watch ‘em pick it up. And watch ‘em look around. They’ll do all kinds of things with it.”

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