My four year old daughter picked this random photo as her favourite - from all other ‘snow in Amsterdam’ pics. The others were boring, she said. So young and she already has a strong sense of ‘interestingness’ in her criteria to make choices.
She came back with some homework yesterday, and the teacher had crossed it as ‘not paying attention. They were given eight cut-outs, each with an image, and they had to put them in their corresponding column: “Over” or “Under”. There was a picture of a Cat under a Table, a Kid under a Rug, etc.
Regardless if she was in fact paying attention or not (she has a *very* short attention span, so it’s quite possible) it occurred to me that I could have made the same choices she (wrongly) made. Who is to say if it’s a picture of a Cat under a Table.. or a Table over a Cat?
Looking at myself, I wonder if she follows my footsteps. Somewhere in my subconscious I probably am aware of what I am *expected* to do, but my instinct always points in a different direction. Always deconstructing the question, finding an alternative answer, looking for the unexpected. It was a long, difficult journey through my education, but fortunately I was able to figure out a way to accommodate my inconformity and turn it into a profession.
I wonder how she - and us parents - will deal with it?
