I have encountered a new and extremely effective tool in my quest for knowledge. This new means of gathering information is elegant in its simplicity and consistent in its effect. It is the question: “why?” Uttered repeatedly and frequently, it is the perfect retort to every statement. And thus far, it seems to spur parents and other adults to perform near verbal acrobatics in a quest to respond. Their answers to this probing and insightful question, not surprisingly, often lead me to again ask: “why?” Interestingly, I have learned that the quality of the response has an inverse relationship to the number of times the question is asked. Typically, I know I have reached the limits of parental knowledge when the answer is simply: “because.”
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