Early Influences

11/09/2010

Curriculum becomes intriguing, alive, and compelling when something out of the blue captures the imagination of a group of children.
David Sobel, Childhood and Nature

People who have accomplished great things in this world often cite someone early in their lives who had a major influence on what they became (a message which should be heartening to all early childhood teachers and providers). One example is the story of Thomas Edison as related in Mental Floss (September 2010)...

"In 1862, at the age of 15, Edison got his first job as a newspaper boy at a train station in Mount Clemens, Michigan. One day, while hawking newspapers, Edison noticed a 3-year-old boy playing on the tracks, right in the path of a runaway freight train.... The quick-thinking Edison jumped on the track, swooped up the boy in the nick of time, and then dove away from the speeding train.

"The action not only saved the boy's life, but it changed Edison's as well. The boy's father happened to be the station's telegraph operator. He was so grateful to Edison that he took him under his wing and trained him in telegraphy, sparking the inventor's lifelong love affair with all things electric."

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