The following Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Marksissons and is narrated by

Brock Armstrong.

Are we thwarting children's instinct to explore?

Needless to say, this topic made for fun water cooler talk this week. We somehow

never tired of sharing our exploits from those years. Many exploits our parents to this day don't

know about. Maybe we never want to give up owning those stories. They involved most of us running

outside the second breakfast was done

and only coming home during the warmer days for lunch, dinner, and band-aids. We rode dirt bikes

at insane speeds over narrow route line paths, all without helmets, climbed trees higher than we'd

ever admit to our mothers, and got ourselves regularly

soaked in muddy creek water. Bee stings were a rite of passage, as were eating insects on a

dare, getting your first stitches, and instigating the occasional skirmish over certain kid

principles. By today's standards, I'd venture we'd all be considered

ruffians. Beyond what used to be the typical rough and tumble antics of childhood, however,

some stories revealed more compelling dimensions of youthful curiosity. Two brothers would mill

around the congregants of a local church that they didn't attend on Sundays

and make their way to the back door, where they regularly hid rocks or sticks in the door jam,

and then returned to explore after everyone had gone home.

They would walk quietly through the rooms, visiting the empty auditorium, kitchen,

gym, and sanctuary. There was never any shortage of curiosities to examine in the after-hours darkness

where they wouldn't disturb anything, but observe, wonder, and bask in the ever-present risk of being

caught. Along a similar vein, another neighborhood set of children would every summer day for years

...