There was plenty of social media attention given to the eclipse, which can be good and bad and often irrelevant. Part of this coverage included kids and schools that were making special effort to see the eclipse and to teach about it, and to also protect young eyes from staring right at the eclipse without proper eye wear.
If this eclipse got these kids, any kids, to give thought to big ideas in their world, then that is awesome. These might be the kids that go on to study medicine or science or just attempt discovery. Again, this is a great thing. Maybe these kids reach for the stars and are behind the next great idea is space travel, maybe these kids develop medicines that alleviate certain pains or maybe these kids cure a disease or illness in their lifetimes.
It is a lot to ask of an event like an eclipse, but this is what dreaming and discovery and learning is really all about. And maybe this eclipse, an event we cannot control, change or alter, affected a fraction of a percent of the millions of children that observed it with awe and wonder. That is a great thing, and I am even more intrigued by this than I was about the eclipse itself.
I recently read a book by Ben Sasse called The Vanishing American Adult. I sincerely commend it to you. I mention that book here because the need to develop better, more capable adults in our society is an ultimate outcome of getting our kids to read and discover and wonder and dream...and even to venture outside their tiny circles, be they personal or online, and reach beyond their comfort zones.
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I might deflate my entire point now, but this Instagram post made me laugh and I am still laughing over this one.
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