One of Albert Einstein's lasting memories of his own childhood was the time when he was 5 years old and his father brought home for him a toy pocket compass. How fascinated he was with that swinging needle, which would always point in the same direction no matter which way the compass was turned!
Children are like this - not necessarily like Einstein, perhaps, but all children are curious about the workings of things. "Kids are natural scientists," says Vicki Cobb (whose many science books for children I wholeheartedly recommend). They may not "experiment" with the objects that fall into their reach in the methodical or orderly ways that we would prefer, but that's mainly because they haven't yet been taught that science is a "subject" and should be learned from a "science textbook." They'll get that message soon enough, and then most of them will come to dislike and distrust and distance themselves from that same investigative instinct that both fascinated and nurtured them when they were young.But while they're still curious about things like compasses and magnets and invisible forces, let's feed that curiosity and fascination, just as Einstein's father did. And this is a particularly good time for all of us to wonder about the phenomenon called magnetism, because Nov. 30 marks the passing, in 1603, of William Gilbert, the man who first formulated the essential "laws of magnetism" and who first theorized that the Earth behaved like a giant magnet.
In a variety store or toy store, you'll be able to purchase, quite inexpensively, a pocket compass and a bar magnet or two, which you and your children can use around the house to perform many scientific "experiments," much as Gilbert did long ago as a way of understanding how magnets behaved in the real world. Next week I'll suggest some ways that you can lead your children toward making these observations and forming their own conclusions, but for now let's consider what we ourselves know about magnetism, and more important, what we don't know.
Gilbert saw the Earth as a huge magnet, complete with north and south magnetic poles and connecting lines of force, just as though a giant bar magnet were running through its core. But is there actually a magnet in the Earth? I mean, why exactly does a compass needle point to this "magnetic north pole" on our planet's surface? Most adults, I've found, will offer one or both of the following explanations:
A. There is a huge deposit of magnetic material lying way up in northern Canada, which attracts the north-seeking end of a compass needle, or
B. The core of the Earth is an ironlike material that somehow, perhaps by spinning through a gravitational field, has acquired the properties of a magnet.
In truth, the answer is C. neither of the above, or even better still, "I don't know." Not only don't I know, but no one else does either. It's a wonderful mystery, which has produced many theories, but no hard answers.
Now many adults - parents and teachers, too - find these words, "I don't know," so difficult to say that they never use them in answer to a question from a child. Any answer, they think, even a wrong answer is better than the bald-faced admission of ignorance: "I don't know." How sad this is, for many reasons, but especially because it helps destroy that fascination and wonder that children have about their world, and that we should have about our world, too.
Some questions are unanswerable, but most need only to be investigated, not deflected. So the next time you are stumped by a question about science - or language or geography or history - try forcing yourself to say those three little words: "I don't know." Then add three more: "Let's find out."- William F. Russell's books for parents and children include "Classics to Read Aloud to Your Children" and "Classic Myths to Read Aloud." Send your questions and comments to him at Family Learning, 2400 E. Main St., Suite 266, St. Charles, IL 60174-2414.