The 5 Year Old Mind

So, something interesting happened the other morning when my daughter came home from school. She handed me a parchment certificate that read her name and underneath it stated "Knows the Pledge of Allegiance and its Meaning". Hmmm. My daughter is 5 years old. I thought how interesting it was that she was taught the pledge and it was verified that she understood its meaning. I was thinking back to when I first was taught the pledge and I can not say that I understood its meaning until I was in Junior High and even then, well, I am not really sure I understood the concept.

I decided to do a little investigating and asked her to recite the pledge to me. She did it in her wonderful 5 year old glory, every word recited correctly and precisely. I was impressed. She then went on to quiz me about each line. She asked me if I understood what allegiance meant and then asked me if I was "allegied to the United States". Sometimes children just make you smile. "Yes" I told her, "I am allegied". She asked me if I understood the meaning of "One Nation Under God" and I said yes. I asked her what she thought it meant and she said "Well, God watches everything and everyone and the nation is the brotherhood, the family that all work together to make a better place". In theory, I thought to myself. What a beautiful sentiment isn't it from the mind of a child? She has no predisposed notions of the world, not corrupted by all of the politicians, crime, hate and trauma that the world has to offer. She only sees the simple things. Wow, 5 years old is a beautiful thing isn't it?

She asked me the other day what color she was. I told her she was white and asked her "Why? what color did you think you were?" "Oh", "I thought I was flesh colored". How cool is that? This is the age where the world is really just as it appears. I told her she was flesh colored. "Yep, everyone is colored in flesh, just in different shades" she stated and tottled off. As I said, the mind of a child is a beautiful thing. You have to love the statements that are just oberservant truths.