No, this isn’t about that seizure thing.
Most of my students are two to six years old, which means critical thinking isn’t really in their intellectual toolbox just yet. No biggie, that comes with time. But there are days when they come up with stuff so absurd that makes me wish they’d get it going just a bit quicker.
If you’re not familiar with Pokémon, you may not know that all any of the critters can say (with the exception of Meowth, who’s part of Team Rocket) is their own names. Thus, you’ll always hear Pikachu, saying things like “Piiiiiikaaaaaachuuuuuuuuu!” or “Pika-pika!” It fits the context of the cartoon, so it’s not that big a deal, right? Ordinarily, I’d agree.
It’s when kids try and translate this concept to real life that I get worried.
Some of the kids like to play their own made up version of Pokémon when we go to the park. This usually entails them running around yelling out the names of whichever characters they’re pretending to be. One day one of them was running about saying “Chiwa! Chiwa!” Other kids were laughing at her and I asked what was up. (Pokémon have different names in Japanese and English, so I figured it was just one I hadn’t heard of yet.)
“She’s being a chihuahua!” they told me.
Now, I get the Pokémon thing. Really, I do. But how do you make the leap from cartoon animals saying their own names to real animals doing the same thing? Do German Shepherds run around saying, Germa! Germa!”? Does one hear Basset Hounds saying, “Bassa! Bassa!”?
I don’t even want to know what Cocker Spaniels and Shihtzus say!