hmmm ok i agree that as we do as we get older we lose our ability to wonder. However i would like to change that slightly i feel that as we get older and the pressures and reality's of life kick in adults suppress these ability's because they see them as being unanswerable and school has taught them that they should stick to the facts.
In relation to teenagers i feel that maybe when you hit 18 19 you might suppress this ability to wonder because school has taught you to believe facts and rely on the knowledge of other people to determine your answers, but the young to middle aged teenager still have these amazing and fascinating ability's and can still use them to great extent. this is why feel that the teenage years are the best years of your life, because you can still tap into these powers and yet ask more important questions and interpret good responses to them .
Young children often wonder about the world around them because it is new and almost to good to be true and therefore as they grow and develop senses they can start to wonder about the objects around them. For example how they got there and why they are soft. Now as they grow science tells them that the ball is soft because its made of foam, and yet the child still wonders. it is this brilliant power that a child has to find its own answers to why the ball is soft that Albert Knox finds so intriguing.
This quality shines through in adults when for example a person visits a new country they question the culture and why its different to theirs. this is a clear example of how adults keep their ability's to wonder but the ability's are suppressed by the stress pressure and reality's of life which they are faced with be it at work or at home.
In conclusion i feel that younger Children have the most amazing abilities to Wonder but do not have the intellectual talents to ask the right questions, and Adults still have the ability's but their experiences and life has taught them that questions like "who are we" why are we here" and what is our aim or purpose" are not easy questions to answer so they sick to something they know is answerable. Teenagers on the other had still are capable of coming to a conclusion be it because of their naivety or their enhanced intellect compared to a child.
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Ben, I think you've touched on some insightful points about how age or the stage in a person's life influences one's ability to wonder. The distinction you made between the intellectual capacity and experience of a child and those of an adult might explain how each of them approach 'wonderment'. A child seems to wonder more than an adult because he or she has less knowledge about the world whilst a complex lifestyle of an adult by comparison might perclude his/her ability to wonder more often. Do you think an adult can learn from a child where, in reciprocity, an adult would wonder more about the world than a child? In other words, pop culture, trivia and general knowldge for each age group are very different so if one group is more curious about the other, than one group would wonder more and ask more questions about that group's realm of existence and its world of knowledge.
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