ABSTRACT
Children are not what they seem. They are not just adorable offspring, both fun and annoying. They are not just cerebral mush waiting to develop (slowly) into surgeons, writers, and accountants. Children are far more capable than we can even know. They are, in fact, master learners from the very beginning, efficiently and thoroughly chronicaling their environment, its meaning, logic, and purpose. If we wait until, say, age six to begin teaching them to read, write, and compute we have missed a thousand opportunities to expand their learning and their ability to learn. If we wait until, say, eleven or fourteen to teach them world culture, history, and literature, we have fundamentally misunderstood their abilities and even their humanity. Like water finding its own level, children will learn whatever we place before them, whenever we place it there.
