How Old is Old Enough?

        Over Thanksgiving, my older sister's married friends joined us and brought along their 14 months old son Josiah. I know whenever someone a baby they all respond with, "That is the cutest baby I have ever seen!!". Well I can assure you, he was. Like all babies he was passed from stranger to stranger while we all gave the little man hugs and kisses. Watching him run around the backyard and house I noticed how relaxed his parents were, not rushing to his side and fawning over him every time he stumbled and fell. Josiah would just stand back up and continue running in the same direction like nothing happened. I have seen other children start to cry and whimper every time they fall over because they have learned that when they do this they get their parents attention and they parents come running over to ix their broken child. While i was playing with Joey in the hammock in my sister's back yard, I was swinging him and  as I swung the hammock one way Joey decided to roll in the opposite direction. This action ended up with Josiah rolling off the hammock and onto the ground. My first reaction after making sure Joey was ok was to look over at his mother, I thought she would be running over to check on Josiah, but instead she was hunched over laughing, When I looked back to Joey, he was standing up underneath the hammock, tangled up in the rope and looking very cute, and slightly dazed. After untangling himself, he let out a fantastically cute giggle and tried to get back on the hammock. 
        Later on in the day, Josiah's dad was talking about an article about a newspaper columnist who allowed her 9 year-old son to navigate his way home on the New York subway. Here is that article. Which brings me to the question, How old is old enough? Is nine too young to ride the subway? How old should you be to ride your bike to school? To walk to school? To make your own lunch? To get a cell phone? How much independence should parents give to their children?

Wind Boy

This week my older sister e-mailed me a link to an article about a Malawian boy who built a windmill to power his village. He constructed this from scratch and has been improving its design since its erection. William Kamkwamba received the basic knowledge of how a windmill functions, but he discovered how to construct the windmill with a bicycle, plastic pipes, and an old shock absorber by himself.
In class we discussed the difference between received knowledge and discovered knowledge. We all agreed that the combination of both is the best way to learn. William clearly had the same notion needed only an old library book to create for himself a windmill. Now this is clearly an extreme case, but how many of use could say that with only a book, no help from teachers if we didn't understand something and no other resources, could build a functioning windmill that an entire village relies on. William Kamkwamba is clearly a very talented individual who used recieved his knowledge from a book and then created something extraordinary.