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Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Age 7 in America

Yesterday I was watching a documentary called "Age 7 in America." Eight children --aged 7-- of various races and backgrounds from all over the country were interviewed about their very different lives. It was amazing to compare the answers of, for example, a caucasian girl from New York City attending one of the best private schools and an african american boy from the projects in Chicago. When asked if drugs and violence exist in their community, the girl was appalled and couldn't imagine such an idea, whereas the boy said he saw a man get shot in the eyeball just the other day as he was leaving for school.

This immediately reminded me of limited fork theory. We are all so affected by our backgrounds, whether or not we know it, and the things we are exposed to shape our view about the world. The only way to extend our knowledge-- or the tines of our fork-- is to get out and meet new people and experience new things. Even just by watching this documentary my fork has been elongated in ways I probably can't even consciously acknowledge.

Happy forking!

1 comment:

  1. This reminds me of "the UP series," which follows the lives of 14 kids, revisiting them every 7 years: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_Series

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