More Scientists

"Journalist: You wrote an introduction to the book and one of the striking things you said is that it’s only children nowadays who ask the big questions because they don’t know enough not to? 
Carl Sagan: What I was trying to get across was the notion that the school systems have an attitude of discouragement of asking fundamental questions. If a 5-6 year old asks why the moon is round or why grass is green the usual adult answer, at least, in my experience, is to discourage the child. So 'what shape did you expect the moon to be? Square?' Or: 'what colour did you expect the grass to be? Blue?' Instead of saying that: 'those are interesting questions, let’s try to find out the answer' or 'maybe nobody knows the answer and when you grow up you will be able to discover the answer.' It would be very healthy for the human species if there were less discouragement and more scientists."