IS THAT A THINKING CAP?

BY DAN MILLER
October 27, 2006

Kids, it seems, can inherit actual questions and quirks directly from their parents.
Case in point.... Thinking Caps.

Remember when teachers -- or quiz show hosts -- would say.... "OK everybody, put on your thinking caps".... just before asking a tough question?

Months ago, I made reference to a "thinking cap" while discussing some deep philosophical issue with my (then) 6 year old daughter.
She looked at me and said, "Daddy, I don't think I have a thinking cap, do I?"
Now, that's the genetic factor I'm talking about.

When I was a young boy, I was too timid to admit to anyone that I didn't have a thinking cap.
I would hear people referring to thinking caps all the time, but I was reluctant to own up to the painful fact that I didn't have one.... and I didn't know where, or how, you get one.

Was it something my parents would eventually buy for me?
Or were they awarded to everyone by schools, or the government, when we reached a certain age?
I just didn't know.... and I didn't want to ask.
Of course, I figured it would be quite helpful to have a thinking cap.
And in my mind's eye, I knew exactly what they probably looked like.
They were sort of green, and looked oddly like Robin Hood's cap.

Now that my daughter is 7, I'm fairly certain she understands that a thinking cap is just an imaginary thing.... a figure of speech.
Just for fun, I asked her to put on her thinking cap and draw me a picture of how she thinks a thinking cap might look.

She sketched the accompanying picture quickly and confidently, almost as if she knew exactly what a thinking cap looks like.
You can see the wires and cells and circuits she included....
I got the creepy feeling that she has actually seen one.

Wait a minute...!
I think my wife has one of those in her closet!

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