Are You Smarter Than A First Grader?

From time to time,I volunteer to give small science talks to first graders at the school where my mother teaches. Its quite an experience and always gives me something to smile and laugh about. No matter how many times I tell them that their questions will be taken and answered once I am done talking, there's always a handful of them who'd raise their hands in the midde of it all, ever so eagerly,all wide-eyed."Yes?Do you have a question?",I say.A nod and an ahan later they get permission to ask the question only to be followed by an "ummm,I forgot". They are all really intelligent and inquisitve and ever so often they have questions that have me stumped. For example, the time when I talked to them about the skeleton. I had taken in a little plastic skeleton model to point out the different bones and just when I was almost done a little girl raised her hand and asked,"Aya,is that a boy or a girl?".Two years out of medical school and about five down from those anatomy lessons on differentiating male and female skeletons on the basis of which notch was deeper on what bone, I truly was at a loss.So,I told the little girl that I couldn't tell and that someone who was an expert at differetiating "girl and boy bones" would probably be able to answer that question...heh.The puzzled look on her face could very well be translated into a "But I thought you were a doctor!".
Another amusing exchange took place while I talked to them about the digestive system. I was telling them about food being absorbed by the intestine when I heard a kid sitting in the front row ask another, albeit in a loud whisper,"So, what happens to food our body doesn't want?". The answer,"What do you think poop is, silly?!".So, we eventually talked about poop amongst a lot of "ewwwww-s" and "yuk-s"(courtesy the girls in the class).Anyways,just when I thought it was over and done with, this one kid who I think is the smartest of the bunch shot up his hand and said,"I know another name for poop!". Expecting him to use the scientific term "feces" (this kid knows what arteries are and even the name of the smallest bone in the human body!) I gave him the go ahead and he said,"Its dung!"...heh.I wonder how many kids actually caught on to "dung" and used the word at home!
On a serious note though,my interaction with these kids often makes me wonder about education back home and how its different from what kids get here.There is need for improvement in a lot of quadrants but theres one thing that always stands out, at least in my eyes. Now, I draw upon my experience as a child growing up and it might be different now or so I hope. Its how there was never any encouragement to question what was being taught.It was there in the text or the notes and thats the way it was. In time, this practise,I believe totally sucks the life out of what should be an enjoyable and rewarding learning experience. It breeds unmotivated learners, blunts mental development and I'd go as far as saying that it has a bearing on moulding a child's personality. Private schools in Pakistan are probably implementing a change in startegy but what I'd love to see,some day, is for this to happen at all the government run local schools too.