With grandchildren who are now 2, 4 and 6 years old, I have had occasion to weather many a “why” question (but, blessedly, less frequently than my kids have). And judging from the substantial online discussion of kids’ “why” stage, I am far from alone.
But in perusing some of that discussion, one comment by psychiatrist Napatia Gettings shifted my thoughts away from how to survive the why stage. She said, “They’re trying to make sense of the world, and that’s a good sign.” It made me remember a phrase I have read, with some variation, many times in Thomas Sowell’s writing, from at least as far back as his 1980 Knowledge and Decisions though his 2009 Intellectuals and Society. He repeatedly pointed out that important aspects of many views, proposals, and policies ran aground on “a question seldom asked, much less answered.”