How to Get Your Kids Hooked on the Universe

We spend the first year of a child’s life teaching him or her to walk and talk “and the rest of their lives telling them to shut up and sit down.” So quips Neil deGrasse Tyson, who says this approach, in which “everything is a don’t,” gets in the way of a child’s natural curiosity. So get out of the way, Tyson says. 

If you want to help children explore, there is perhaps one thing you can do. Buy a pair of binoculars and leave them out. 

“For me at age 11, Tyson tells Big Think, “I had a pair of binoculars and looked up to the moon, and the moon wasn’t just bigger, it was better. There were mountains and valleys and craters and shadows. And it came alive.”

That’s what got Tyson hooked on the universe. “It might get some kids you know started the same way,” he says. 

Watch the video here:

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