How To Disappear Completely

Proof That Philosophy Corrupts You

Yesterday, the four-year-old whom I nanny wouldn't eat his grapes during lunch.

"Why won't you eat your cherries?" I asked.
"They're not cherries; they are grapes."
"How do you know that they are grapes? I think they're cherries."
"I've had them before, and these look like grapes."
"But this time, they might be different. You'd better try them to make sure. That particular one definitely looks like a cherry."
"No, Sarah. See?" and he pops one in his mouth. "It was a grape."
"Well, that one was a grape, but this one might be a cherry. You can't be certain until you've tested it. Just because that one was a grape doesn't mean that this one will be, also."
"Sarah, you are really not very smart. See!!! This one was a grape, too."

And so on, until all the grapes were verified to be, in fact, grapes.

Inductive investigation is so useful for manipulating children.