(36)curious

(37)figuring

(38)independent

(39)unusual

(40)interacting

(41)formal

(42)abstract

(43)mystery

(44)and he has found out how it works and learned to use it appropriately.

(45)by trying it out and seeing whether it works by gradually changing it and refining it

(46)including many of the concepts that the schools think only they can teach him

Almost every child, on the first day he sets foot in the school building, is smarter, more (36)curious, less afraid of what he doesn’t know, better at finding and (37)figuring things out, more confident, resourceful, persistent, and (38)independent than he will ever be again in his schooling--or, unless he is very (39)unusual and very lucky, for the rest of his life. Already, by paying close attention to and (40)interacting with the world and people around him, and without any school-type (41)formal instruction, he has done a task far more difficult, complicated and (42)abstract than anything he will be asked to do in school or than any of his teachers has done for years. He has solved the (43)mystery of language. He has discovered it. Babies don’t even know that language exists-- (44) and he has found out how it works and learned to use it appropriately. He has done it by exploring, by experimenting, by developing his own model of the grammar of language, (45) by trying it out and seeing whether it works by gradually changing it and refining it until it does work. And while he has been doing this, he has been learning other things as well, (46) including many of the concepts that the schools think only they can teach him, and many that are more complicated than the ones they do try to teach him.