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CHAPTER 12 MZ PE G@: How Not to Teach Some people will never learn anything, for this reason, because they understand everything too soon. —Alexander Pope My daughter learned a lot from me and from her surroundings when she was small. All children learn all the time when they are little. But what are they learning? When Hana was about 1-1/2 we lived in Switzerland. Hana was my parent’s first grandchild. Since they were in New York, there were frequent phone calls back and forth and more than the occasional visit. Once during this period I got curious as to whether Hana knew the names of her grandparents. I figured she might not know the word name so I asked her, “What does Gammy (her name for my mother) call Poppy (my father). She immediately responded, “Maaacc!!” imitating the intonation and exasperation of my mother trying to get my father’s attention. I asked what my father called my mother, and she said “Marge!” in the tone of an authorita- tive military call. Hana talked to her grandparents on the phone quite a bit. One day I noticed her walking in furious circles while she was talking, at one point almost bringing the phone down on her head. Now who had been teaching her that? Well... me. That’s what I do when I talk on the phone. And it is still what my daughter does, 30 years later. Speaking of 30 years later (well, 20 in this story), I observed this same seemingly imitative behavior in Hana when she was in college. I remarked to a friend of my daughter who went to school with her in Evanston that there was a no left turn sign in Evanston (where I also worked) that I always ignored because it was so stupid. She said that my daughter always ignored the same sign and also said it was stupid. The curious part of this story is that my daughter and I, having our own cars and lives, had never been in a car together in Evanston and neither had we ever discussed this sign. 177 HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_023917