Asking

I mentioned a week or two ago what James Montgomery Boice taught me about how to get smart. His curiosity was well developed. You can read about that here.

Wanting to inspire my children to his level of curiosity and intelligence, I told my children all about this.

Several weeks later I was working on a project of some kind, and my second son was hanging around. He was, as children are want to do, pestering me with an unending barrage of questions.

Finally I had had enough and I asked him if he wouldn’t really rather go play outside. He declined, preferring to stay and ask me questions that I could not answer.

Finally, my answer giving limit was reached, and I asked him to please do something else.

He said, “But Dad, you said this is the way to get smart.” (And, of course, being a son, he just wanted to be with me, but that was nothing he could express.)

It takes pretty good skill to fail as an intellectual mentor AND as a father at the same time. But I accomplished it.