An adult guides eight-year-old Alana through exploring what rules are. She connects them to grocery carts, playgrounds, math, language, and games, and talks about when rules can bend, like speaking like Yoda. She shares a story about a neighborhood science challenge.
Good morning, Alana. How are you?
I'm good. How are you?
I'm well, thank you. So I was thinking about rules today. So what are rules?
Um, to me, rules are like if you're at a certain place, they have rules. Like at grocery stores, they have certain carts that They say, um, do not allow children to sit or climb or stand on the carts.
Are there places other than grocery stores that have rules?
Yeah, maybe your home has their own rules. Maybe a museum has their own rules. Maybe, um, like wildlife that people visit, that maybe they have their own rules.
So are rules in all parts of life, or are there parts of life that do not have rules?
To me, there are parts of life that don't have rules. Like if you count the wildlife, there aren't really many rules, I'm guessing, for the animals. And also maybe if you're playing at the playground, after this pandemic or before this, there could probably be no rules except please be careful and do not fall.
Okay, so wildlife, you're saying the wildlife themselves have no rules, is that what you're saying?
That's what I'm thinking because like you can still visit there, but actually I take that back, there's probably rules. If people live there, there's probably rules. For the people.
Okay, but how about animals? Do animals have rules?
I actually don't really know, but they could have rules in their own language that we don't understand though.
Okay, and with playing, you say there are no rules other than keep safe, basically?
Well, for playgrounds?
Yeah.
To me, playgrounds, like, I can't— me and Logan can just go free when we play there, go any part of the playground, maybe do the swing, the bars, the monkey bars, or the ropes. And to me, the only thing that I really— that I have my own rules are is please be careful and do not fall.
Got it. Yeah, falling's no fun.
Yeah. Yeah.
So why do you think we have rules?
Um, maybe safety reasons so you don't get hurt or you don't go to the hospital.
Okay, so, um, do you think that there are rules in mathematics?
There could be, like rules of how to do algebra or math or division.
Are you doing division yet?
I don't know. We are— we're— I think we're just starting multiplication.
Okay, so there may be rules in math. How about in language? Are there rules in language?
There could be, like maybe the rules are maybe this word means that and that means this. So if you wanted to speak and you wanted to say that word, it means this.
Okay, suppose I If I said, "Let's go to the store," and then I said, "Let store go to," are both the right way to say English?
The first way is the right way to say it.
Why is the second one wrong?
It's because it just doesn't make sense if you say, "Let's go store." You have to say "to the," like you're going to the, like you're going to the park, to the playground.
So do you think that's a way in which language has rules?
Yeah, that could be one.
Okay. How about games? Do games like chess or checkers or other games have rules?
They have rules. Maybe pieces of where to move or how many squares to move.
Okay. So are those rules to keep you safe? The rules of games?
Um, well, it's basically just a game, so I wouldn't say it keeps you safe. But the rules are like how the pieces move and how to play the game.
Wait, why do you think there are rules in games? Because when you go to the playground, you don't have rules really. So why have rules in games?
To me, games, like, if you don't know how to play a game, you're just like— you can also just explore. But if you know how to play the game and you're playing it with another, with another person, You could maybe do advanced, or— and you could know which, um, like what they're gonna do to you if you move this piece there or this piece here.
Okay, um, and why do you think we have rules in language?
In life?
In language. Like, um, you can't say, why store go to the—
well, And also, that wouldn't make actually any sense to me. Maybe other people it would, but not to me. Like, "Go to the store, I will." Does not make sense.
So why do we have rules in language then?
Maybe so you can understand people more or just talk correctly. I'm not saying that some people talk wrong, just like if— If you say, and I'm not judging Yoda, if you say, "I go to the store, I will." Wait, "Go to the store, I will." That doesn't make sense. The "I will" goes first and then the "go to the store" goes after.
But you can understand Yoda, right? You know what Yoda is saying.
Yeah, I can understand him, but sometimes people may not.
Okay. So are there times when it's okay to break rules?
Sometimes, not all the time. Like if they're simple rules or you forget a rule, you just need to correct yourself.
How do you know when it's okay to break a rule?
Uh, let's see, if you were at a playground and maybe there was actually a rule that you didn't know was there And it said not to climb, or no, it said not to climb on the highest bar because that was just made for the structure, and you did, and someone's like, "Hey, you're breaking the rules!" And I'm like, "Oh, I didn't know that that was a rule." Okay, do you think that would be harmless enough? Yeah, because you probably just made a really small mistake.
Okay, is it okay when Yoda breaks the rules of language?
He doesn't break rules. He just— well, he doesn't really break any rules. It's just how he talks.
Okay.
And it's funny. Well, it's not funny in like a laughing sense, like making funny sense, but like it's fun to watch and it's really— and I really like it.
So talk like Yoda, do I? Is it okay if I talk like Yoda?
Yeah.
But that's breaking the rules of language, right?
Well, you're not— there aren't exactly rules in language. It's just like maybe how to talk this way or that way.
Store, go to, 10, understand, not you?
I'm not under 10. Or no, I— yeah, I'm under 10.
Okay, so it seems like with language, Yoda-style language is okay, but—
Yeah, it's just kind of hard to understand.
And at some point, if you don't follow the rules, it's too hard to understand?
If you do a really complex one like a poem, but you talk it like Yoda, that would be really, really hard to understand.
Okay, okay. All right, well, what are you gonna do today for fun?
I know that we're— that, so the kids next door, they, the oldest one is giving me a challenge for a science experiment.
Very cool. What's the challenge?
I don't know yet. He's gonna send it to me.
Well, that's exciting. I hope you really do well on the challenge and have fun with it. And we'll think about something else next week, okay?
Okay.
Bye-bye, Alana.
