“If the idea of the universe is presented to the child in the right way, it will do more for him than just arouse his interest, for it will create in him admiration and wonder, a feeling loftier than any interest and more satisfying.” ~Maria Montessori
“We are perishing for want of wonder, not for want of wonders.” ~G. K. Chesterton, quoted by Leonard Read, in I, Pencil.
Last night I had an amazing conversation with my incredibly precocious 12 year old neighbor. Our conversation brought us to the idea of being self-sufficient, and what I would, or wouldn’t be able to do without the help of others. I was inspired to bring out I, Pencil, a short essay by Leonard Read, founder of the Foundation for Economic Education, and read it with him. I went and got a pencil, simple, yellow, out of my desk, and we sat down together.
“I, Pencil, am a complex combination of miracles: a tree, zinc, copper, graphite, and so on. But to these miracles which manifest themselves in Nature an even more extraordinary miracle has been added: the configuration of creative human energies—millions of tiny know-hows configurating naturally and spontaneously in response to human necessity and desire and in the absence of any human master-minding! Since only God can make a tree, I insist that only God could make me. Man can no more direct these millions of know-hows to bring me into being than he can put molecules together to create a tree.” I, Pencil, Leonard Read
If you have never read this essay, I highly recommend it, I especially recommend reading it with your younger friends. My neighbor became so engaged! He began thinking of all the different people involved, and how we really aren’t very self sufficient at all. If we can inspire young people to see the wonder in the world around them, not just in nature, but in their own clothes, and plates, and pencils, in the simple things we can take for granted…if we can do that, we can begin to engage them to appreciate the “millions of tiny know-hows”, and once they appreciate them they will be prepared to protect them.
2-minute video of Milton Friedman paraphrasing the I, Pencil story (the essay is better, of course 
)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6vjrzUplWU]
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