Evan is in love with energy and electricity. Every once in a while, the subject matter, the teacher's passion, and the child's curiosity match up and then the learning explodes like a zeplin full of hydrogen. Ms. Paola, it turns out, is a closet electrical engineer. One day Evan came back from school and said that "people think that Benjamin (he pronounced it "Ben-ha-min") Franklin discovered electricity. That's not true but he studied it. It was Faraday." When he saw Jo and my surprised looks he said "That's his name in Spanish. In English you can call him Benjamin."
Another time "Edison is really famous but he was better at taking other people's ideas and improving them because they were better than his ideas. His direct current wasn't as good as Tesla's so he stole Tesla's idea."
The other day we drove past the power substation near his school and he asked "Daddy - does this step the thing in the electricity up or down?"
He was able to sort out the answer on his own. Then I asked if Edison's electricity would be able to do this. "No - only alternating current can be stepped up or down."
He's actually learned a thing or two.
Another time "Edison is really famous but he was better at taking other people's ideas and improving them because they were better than his ideas. His direct current wasn't as good as Tesla's so he stole Tesla's idea."
The other day we drove past the power substation near his school and he asked "Daddy - does this step the thing in the electricity up or down?"
He was able to sort out the answer on his own. Then I asked if Edison's electricity would be able to do this. "No - only alternating current can be stepped up or down."
He's actually learned a thing or two.
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