What Louie Knows.

Yesterday, Louie (5y, 1 wk) and I were building a fire at the Tract to begin the day, I mentioned that my phone was being strange—that the internet wasn’t working well. The app we use to check children in for the day kept glitching, loading without closing. Regular, everyday, 2021.

“My mom and dad said that about their phones this morning,” Louie said.

Louie clarified that his parents had said it to one another, not to him. He added that he wasn’t sure he was supposed to have heard it, but remained listening even through he was in another room. Louie even went on to conjecture that maybe that’s why they’d sent him to the other room. The living room, he noted, was three rooms away from the kitchen, but he had listened.

Something about Louie’s story and interpretation stuck with me.

It made me wonder: Do children (and maybe some more than others) realize that there are things they are not supposed to hear? What connections do they make between these strains of conversation and the actions of those who wield a degree of power or influence over their lives?

And what is the impact of knowledge that they are supposed to not know?

For example, if a piece of information is useful in an interaction, but a child is not supposed to know it, do they still feign ignorance? Especially if the only way to have found out the critical piece of information was to have eavesdropped or otherwise transgressed a norm?

Childhood. Fascinating indeed.

It also made me wonder, what other things float around in Louie’s mind all day? What else does he know, have questions or curiosities or inklings about?

If we could only begin to know.

Cheers,
Ron