Michael Strong talks with six-year-old Alana about the educational videos she watches, including TED talks and "It's Okay to Be Smart." She describes a video on Harry Potter's character arc, another explaining eminent domain through Wreck-It Ralph, and recalls learning about greyhound anatomy from a visiting veterinarian at school.
How are you today?
Are you there?
Yes.
I was not hearing you. I think I had to turn on my speaker better. How are you?
Good, how are you?
I'm well. Are you at the shoe store again?
Yes, I am.
Do you just love the shoe store?
Um, yes, and also I had to do some work over here.
What kind of work do you have to do over there?
I have to do my Spanish homework, some artwork for make project at the Friendly Store.
I see. And why do you do your work at the shoe store?
Well, we— so first of all, my brother might be a little bit loud for my mom because she's sleeping in the apartment.
Yep.
So, um, we don't want to wake her up, and this might be an entertaining place for him because he loves family.
Got it, got it. So it's a— the shoe store is a quiet place for you?
Yes, and my dad to work.
I see. Okay, um, well, I understand from your dad that you watch a lot of educational videos. What kind of educational videos do you watch?
TED, um, It's Okay to Be Smart, Vee, that kind of stuff on YouTube.
And do you pick the videos, or does your dad or mom pick the videos, or how do you— who picks the videos?
Sometimes my dad picks some, sometimes I go— sometimes I go to my favorite apps. Like Fee or that kind of stuff.
And so what are— what's a video you saw recently that you really liked?
Maybe on Fee, like, um, the Harry Potter one or the Wreck-It Ralph one, Eminent Domain.
So first tell me about Harry Potter. What was the video you watched about Harry Potter?
Um, I forget its name, but it was about Harry Potter and his life cycle of growing up into 7th year.
So can you explain the life cycle to me?
So first on Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, I have watched that movie, which is pretty good. And then after that, he learns He learned something there and then all the way to the fourth book where he's gonna go where he's gonna go to Hogwarts again with Ron and Hermione because they wanted to watch the Quidditch, I think, match, World Cup.
Mm-hmm. But I'm trying— you said something about life cycle, so I'm trying to understand what What do you mean by life cycle, or what does Harry mean by life cycle? That's the part I'm not quite understanding yet. What do you mean by life cycle?
I think I mean like, um, like the way he grows up in school, the way he learns.
Okay, so it's not like a bicycle or something like that?
No.
Okay, a life cycle. Um, can you explain the different parts of the life cycle?
Yes, so first he was adopted by his uncle, cousin, and aunt, and then he grew up to, to be invited to Hogwarts because he didn't know he was— his mom and dad were actually, um, wizards, but they died against Voldemort. That's what he found out. Then when he went to Hogwarts and he found out about the Sorcerer's Stone, he just had to hide it from Voldemort.
Why do we call this a life cycle?
Maybe, maybe not a life cycle, but kind of like it.
Okay. I guess I'm trying to figure out what a life cycle is because clearly, as we said, it's not a bicycle. Something very different. It's not a tricycle.
No. Maybe it's kind of more like something from when you're young and then you grow up.
Do you think that you will have a life cycle? Yeah.
Everybody does.
So you think that you will be young and grow up?
Mm-hmm.
Do you have any idea what you'll do when you grow up?
Not right now.
Okay. Do you think that, um, you'll have some of the same stages of life that Harry Potter had?
Maybe, like, learn— like, I'm learning stuff that maybe other people don't know or something.
That makes sense. And then you also mentioned a video on eminent domain. What is that? What do you mean by that?
Um, so that one was from Wreck-It Ralph when, um, in his game, um, they move his stump. That's kind of like eminent domain except just they're just moving it instead of, um, crashing it down like real.
So moved his stump. I don't know who the Ralph person is and I don't know what you mean by moving his stump. So you can Can you explain a little bit? I haven't seen these videos, so I'm afraid you have to explain it to me.
Sure, so if you haven't saw the movie Wreck-It Ralph Wrecks the Internet or just Wreck-It Ralph, so he was actually living on his very own land when people came in and showed a piece of paper saying eminent domain, so something moved his stump into a dump, and then they built an apartment there, and they actually called them— and they actually called themselves Nicelanders.
Nicelanders. So was this like a story?
Well, um, that's— that is part of the movie in his game, but they were showing that for, um, just a short.
I see. Um, and, and what exactly is the eminent domain? I'm thinking Is it like a house? Is eminent domain like a house?
Eminent domain is something where the government can destroy people's houses and just build new things.
Wow, that seems strange. That seems very— does that seem strange to you?
Yeah, pretty strange.
Do you think it's real or do you think it's fake?
It's real.
How do you know?
Well, I think, but it, but it was on the video too, but I'm just thinking.
Okay, so you're thinking it's on the video and you're, you're thinking that because it's on the video it's real, or do you have another reason for believing it's real?
Well, another reason is that maybe something Maybe, like, yes, on the video there was a sentence that said, "You would be wrong if you thought it's just a cartoon," but maybe it's real because, like, somebody that's real actually bulldozed somebody that's real's house down.
And so it actually said in the video, "You may think it's just a cartoon, but it's not." They said something like that?
Yeah, I think so.
Okay, and presumably then if you trust them, then it really is real in the real world.
Well, for me, I trust them because that seems pretty real to me.
Okay. You know, I think you have a pretty incredible memory. You seem to remember a lot of details. How many videos, how many educational videos do you watch a week? Like 5 or 10 or 20? Roughly how many?
I don't exactly know, actually.
Sounds like a lot though, maybe, huh?
Yep.
Is it more than one a day, or is it like one or two a day?
Maybe so. If I want, like, I finish videos pretty quickly, so, um, maybe 10 or something a day. No, maybe just 10 a week or something.
Okay, then a week. That's still a lot. You're learning a lot. Do you also learn a lot in school?
Yes.
What do you learn in school?
Last exhibition, if you don't know what that is, we learned about greyhounds, type of dog that is pretty, um, that's pretty special, and that it actually runs pretty fast. I saw it. I'm talking about the greyhounds. And then this year, I'm still in first grade. I'm learning about bones and what they're made of and that it's pretty magical because it can heal itself even if it's broken.
That is pretty magical. What else did you learn about bones?
That it has fat, I think, covering, surrounded it, or that's surrounding it in the body, or it's inside.
Okay, did you see like pictures or diagrams of bones with muscles connected to them?
Not really, but I did see an A couple X-rays of dog bones because my friend's grandpa came over to my classroom to talk about it because he was a vet.
Fascinating. You know, I feel as if you are learning so much, it's hard to keep up with all the stuff you're learning. Do you feel like you're learning a lot? Yeah. Okay. Well, I am going to let you go for the week, but it's wonderful to catch up. And actually, I think— yeah, I know I'm not going to be available next weekend because I'm traveling, but maybe we talk 2 weekends from now, okay?
Okay.
Okay, have a great week, Alana. Bye. Bye-bye.
