Sticks and Stones: A Historical Debate
Whitt S. and Jackson approached me today to tell me about a debate they'd been having.
W and J were respectfully arguing about which object had played a more important role in human history: sticks or stones? I absolutely love that the boys were talking about these two ancient technologies and comparing them to each other.
And, they both had some excellent points.
I was especially impressed because some of their arguments depended on the definition of a word -- "sticks".
Whitt thinks that a stick is anything made of wood, including the trunk of a tree. Jackson (who cited the dictionary!) argues that a stick is only something that falls off a tree.
The boys were discovering that many debates depend on how people choose to define words. This is a sophisticated discovery (and one that will help them both as they develop and improve their debating skills).
A huge thank you, Whitt and Jackson, for thinking deeply and learning from each other. You guys made my day!!
W and J were respectfully arguing about which object had played a more important role in human history: sticks or stones? I absolutely love that the boys were talking about these two ancient technologies and comparing them to each other.
And, they both had some excellent points.
I was especially impressed because some of their arguments depended on the definition of a word -- "sticks".
Whitt thinks that a stick is anything made of wood, including the trunk of a tree. Jackson (who cited the dictionary!) argues that a stick is only something that falls off a tree.
The boys were discovering that many debates depend on how people choose to define words. This is a sophisticated discovery (and one that will help them both as they develop and improve their debating skills).
A huge thank you, Whitt and Jackson, for thinking deeply and learning from each other. You guys made my day!!
Comments
Post a Comment