How Baby #80: Savant
I was having this conversation with some friends the other day about how smart a toddler can be, while also being dumber than a bag of birds. Momo seems to grasp things intuitively, as all toddlers do. I mean, no one ever tells a toddler that the sounds coming out of our mouths mean things; they just independently invent the whole field of linguistics themselves. They are so smart, and often in ways that we’ve forgotten how to be smart: by trusting their experiences and constantly shifting their worldview to compensate.
I don’t give much truck to any argument that hinges on something being wrong because of that old refrain, “how am I supposed to explain that to my children??” I mean… the same way you explain other concepts to them… or, not at all, and they’ll figure it out. It’s when we get all our adult baggage into the conversation that it obfuscates the truth that they understand intuitively.
And then, of course… there are the times they’re dumber than a bag of birds.