…and Its Lessons for Education.
The very good Landmark Books series contains a book about the Wright Brothers entitled The Wright Brothers: Pioneers of American Aviation by Quentin Reynolds, published by Random House, New York, (c) 1950, renewed in 1978. Highly recommended. Buy it and read it all. You can purchase the book at Abebooks.com, at other sites on the Internet, or maybe even at a local bookstore.
The book starts out with Mrs. Susan Wright taking her three children, Wilbur (aged 11), Orville (aged 7), and Katherine (aged 4), on a summer picnic to the banks of a river in the midst of the woods of Dayton, Ohio. While out, the boys go fishing. Then, on pp. 2 – 4:
The fish weren’t biting very well. Suddenly a big bird swooped down, stuck his long bill into the river, came out with a tiny fish, and then swooped right up into the sky again.
“What makes a bird fly, Mother?” Wilbur asked.
“Their wings, Will,” she said. “You notice they move their wings and that makes them go faster.”
“But Mother,” Will said, not quite satisfied, “that bird that just swooped down didn’t even move his wings. He swooped down, grabbed a fish, and then went right up again. He never moved his wings at all.”
