"One day, some years ago, some friends said, 'Ever seen any silicate putty?' I said I had never even heard of it. They gave me a lump. I kneaded it, flattened it, stretched it into a long thin piece, tore it into smaller pieces. Then they said, 'Roll it into a ball and throw it on the floor.' I did so. My eye, and my brain, and my very bones knew what would happen-the putty would splat on the floor and stick. I threw it, and while my eye stayed stuck to the floor the putty bounced up as high as my head. For an awful split second, the universe rocked around me. I was on the brink of terror. Then, in the same instant, something wrenched in my mind, something said, 'Okay, so it bounces, very funny, what will they think of next?' and i was back in the world of order and reason."

John Holt
How Children Fail, 1958