Big Kids

6-year-old's answer to a simple riddle will make you question everything

Things got deep for Brett Turner's class on Tuesday. 

The father-of-two and elementary school teacher put the following riddle to his first grade class (6/7 year olds):

"I am the beginning of everything and the end of everywhere. I'm the beginning of eternity and the end of time and space. What am I?" 

To which one of it students answered "death". 

Turner's class wrote on Twitter that "an awed, sombre, reflective hush fell over the class." 

He then updated us with the rest of classes answers, which were similarly existential, such as ""NOT everything," "all stuff," "the end," and maybe my favourite, "nothingthing.""

The correct answer to the riddle? The letter 'e'. 

After receiving the answer of "death" however, Turner "didn't want to tell them that actually the answer is the letter 'e', which just seemed so banal in the moment." 

The philosophical answer is prompting a similarly awed and thoughtful debate on Twitter: 

That child is going places!  

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