Stories show us a number of things about the ways in which children learn. They see the world as a whole ,mysterious perhaps, but a whole none the less. they do not divide it up into airtight little categories, as we adults tend to do . it is natural for them to jump from one thing to another, and to make the kinds of connections that are rarely made farmer classes and textbooks. they make their own paths into the unknown, paths that we would never think of making for them. Thus, For example, if we decided that it was important for children to know about the Trojan War, or archaeology, would we start talking to them about Scuba diverse? Certainly not. Even if We did , there are many children for whom this would not be good beginning, or a beginning at all. finally, when they are following their own noses , learning what they are curious about , children go faster cover more territory than we would ever think of trying to Mark out for them, or make them cover. people have often said to me ,nervously or angrily, that if we let children learn what they want to know they will become narrow specialist ,nutty expert in baseball batting averages and such trivia . Not so many adults do this ;the universities are full of people who have shut themselves up in little fortresses of artificial restricted private learning . But healthy children, still curious and unafraid, do not learn this way.