Wasn’t it Newton who was praised for his scientific accomplishments but said, “I only stand on the shoulders of giants!” Meaning he only added his discoveries on top of the mountain of knowledge accumulated by others for hundreds of years before.
I was always disappointed as a kid when children in stories didn’t go tell their parent-type persons about the adventures, oddities, and mysteries they’d discovered. The only few kids I knew that wouldn’t have run saying, “Hey! Look what I found!” were the ones that longed most for this close bonding.
Typically grown men buy beautiful train sets for their sons and say, “Hey don’t touch it! You might break it! Watch MEEE PLAY WITH IT!” Meaning these giant-sized kids tell the smaller-sized ones, “I’m the top of the mountain of knowledge and everything. I ’m the entire mountain too; you can’t add anything to what I’ve learned and done!”
Many men and women let children touch the train set and learn, and pepper this with their own knowledge. Kids don’t want adults to solve the problems of the world for them but they do want an adoring audience. An audience who will stand beside them and be drenched in the whole sorry mess so their genius as they tackle the world. Not always praising but always there interested.

Along the way a youth will soak up wisdom and ideas from the old codgers especially as they work or play, read and watch T.V. and movies together. I write and illustrate kid’s books about adults and children each solving problems along side each other. But the child is always the Newton adding a new piece to the pinnacle of brilliance. In the four books of the Leafman Attacks series Anna has problems and so does her grandmother. Troubles add up and they need to literally save the world. Grandma Neda who’s taken every step beside her marvels that, “The whole world has been saved by dead bugs!” Read how Anna’s story progresses in ‘Leafman Attacks’ on Amazon.com.  nancymauerman.com