"Grown people know
that they do not always know
the why of things,
and even if they think they know,
they do not know
where and how
they got the proof.
Hence the irritation they show
when children keep on demanding to know
if a thing is so
and how the grown folks
got the proof of it.
It is so troublesome because
it is disturbing
to the pigeon-hole way of life.
It is upsetting because
until the elders are pushed
for an answer,
they have never looked to see
if it was so
nor how they came by
what passes for proof
to their acceptances
of certain things
as true
So,
if telling their questioning young
to run off and play
does not suffice for an answer
a good slapping of the child's bottom
is held to be proof
positive
for anything
from spelling Constantinople
to why the sea is salt.
It was told
to the old folks
and that had been
enough for them
or put it in
Negro idiom
nobody didn't tell 'em
but they heard.
So
there must be something wrong
with a child that questions
the gods of the pigeon-holes"
-Zora Neale Hurston, from Dust Tracks On the Road
(line breaks and stanza breaks added by me)
