The Crown of Creation
By Peter LloydWe all agree that kids are pretty creative creatures. So it's hilarious to see an adult go through all sorts of teaching contortions to convince a child of something the natural innovator will eventually figure out anyway.
When my son was in grade school, I went with him and his class on an overnight visit to our local zoo. Before we all went to sleep on a classroom floor, we endured a lecture from a khaki-clad, safari leader.
He acknowledged that we were surrounded by caged but wild animals not too far away, which roused both feigned and sincere exclamations of fear from my son's classmates. Then he asked, "What is the most dangerous animal on Earth?"
As you'd expect, he fielded all the typical answers—alligator, lion, shark...
"No," he informed them, "it's man!"
True but not fair. The instructor exaggerated his point in order to encourage good behavior that night and throughout the next day. He used his lesson later in his lecture to encourage conservation and respect for the Earth and all its inhabitants. But in the process, you and I and our kin were dealt a bum rap.
Yes, we slaughter each other senselessly in war and just for the heck of it. Yes, we're destroying the planet in the name of corporate greed. But what other animal has devoted his or her life to finding a cure that eliminated a disease?
Have you ever seen animals dispatch themselves to aid the victims of a tsunami? What about the poor African tribe who gathered up cattle to send to Americans in response to 911?
Okay, Lassie saved Timmy plenty of times on TV, but even if dogs do take great risks to protect humans, remember, humans trained them.
Humans have been known to throw themselves on grenades in the hope of saving the lives of their comrades. If you were a beached whale, who would you want to see, a hurry of humans or a school of fish?
I think kids can hold contradictions in their creative little heads. So go ahead and tell them that humans are the most dangerous creatures on Earth. Just balance it with a few of the qualities that argue for our self-credited title of the crown of creation.
Peter Lloyd is co-creator with Stephen Grossman of Animal Crackers, the breakthrough problem-solving tool designed to crack your toughest problems.