Genius-ry

about the answers.

When I was a first grade teacher, I thought I’m not going to pretend. Kids have to know that grown-ups don’t have all of the answers.

So, lots of times I said, “I don’t know.”

Then sometimes I said, “But I bet we can figure it out.”

But you know, sometimes the answer didn’t matter, nearly as much as the figuring out did. When that was the case, we would just carefully, thoughtfully, most intelligently make up the answers.

Yep. That’s what we did, and it just worked out.

How many stars does it take to make a sky?

We imagined an answer. Then we tested it to see whether it worked. If it did, we kept it. If it didn’t, we took a new try.

We made up words . . . genius-ry, left-hand leg, beautificent!
Then we drew pictures of them.

We made up a song about sauaage, mashed potatoes, and love.

We sat in a circle on the floor and made up the answers to our problems.

Now I wonder if there are any life answers that are always right for sure.

Maybe all of life is about making it up as I go along.