"How can first graders help the Earth?"

[Skidmore]

What a lucky little girl to get to ask such an important question of an important thinker.

Neil deGrasse Tyson just told a tiny girl to be a scientist, and now I’m weeping

By Eve Andrews
18 Nov 2014 5:24 PM comments
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What were you doing at the age of 6? Were you cute? Were you very, very, very cute? Did you care about “helping the Earth?” No, you didn’t — stop lying. Also, with regard to the cute query, you were nowhere near as cute as this girl who stumbled, fawn-like, out of the audience at a Neil deGrasse Tyson lecture at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass.

In response to the heavily lisped question, “How can first graders help the Earth?” (entire audience: “AWWWWWWW”), Tyson gave a very delightful monologue explaining the importance of experimentation at a young age. Basically, banging on pots and pans and jumping in puddles at a young age is a form of very rudimentary empirical investigation! Considering that young girls don’t get nearly as much encouragement to venture into STEM fields as they should, this is actually a beautiful moment to watch.

Now: Would you like to get some life advice from Neil deGrasse Tyson in a public forum? Well, first you have to be 6 years old. If you, a grown adult, slurmed up to NDT in pigtails and a Tall T to ask him to advise you on how to help the planet, you would be forcibly held down by security. If you are no longer in elementary school, your moment to have a famed cosmologist guide your life has passed. I’m sorry.