Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Schooled

"Mom?  How many states are there?" Lilly asks.

I KNOW THIS ONE

"There are 50 states in America, Lilly."

"No," she says, "like how many PLACES are there?"

"Places?"

"Yeah, like there's Ohio State and China and the park."

So just, like, literally every place?  I have no idea.

"Mom? I thought that there were seven continents but now I'm counting and if you include North Antartica and Sourh Antartica, then that's eight."

"Um . . . Maybe because I don't think there is any such thing as North and South Antartica?"

"Mom! Of course there is!  Otherwise all the polar bears would eat the penguins and there would be almost no penguins left!"

Here's the thing though. I really can't say with any kind of certainty that there isn't a North Antartica and South Antartica.  It doesn't exactly SOUND right, but it's been a long time since that was relevant in my life. Also, on the face of it it doesn't seem logical that penguins and polar bears have separate continents but what the hell do I know about wildlife?  The answer is less than I know about geography.

So I didn't argue with her. This seems like a job for School Teacher.

1 comment:

  1. The Antarcticas may be my fault - I thought the lived together but the polar bears live in the non-continent North Pole and the penguins live in Antarctica (continent).

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