I almost blurted out this question when I reviewed my daughter, Denise on what she learned in school that day. She is on Kinder 1 class of a local Montessori school.

Here’s how it went:

Me: What did you learn today? Did teacher speak about the planets?

Denise : Oo ‘my (Yes ‘my)

Me: O sige, what are the nine planets?

Denise : Earth…Mars…Jupiter…Saturn…(and so on…)

Me : O, how about Pluto? Di mo sinabi yung Pluto (You didn’t mention Pluto)

Denise (looks puzzled) : Puto?

Me : PLUTO.

Denise : Wala man yang Pluto! (There’s no Pluto!)

Me : Ano’ng walang Pluto?  Pluto is the smallest planet, while Jupiter is the largest planet.

Denise : Wala lagi yang Pluto!

Enter Yaya Ging-ging, a high school drop out.

Yaya Ging-ging: Wala na man nang Pluto ‘te. Di na man daw na planet. (There is no more Pluto.  It is no longer a planet)

Me (shocked): Unsa? Murag kadungog ko ana pero wa ko nagtuo nga tinuod ni. ( What? I think I came across this some time ago, but I didn’t realize that it’s true! )

I am that shocked because well, from my kindergarten days until I had this conversation with Denise, I have always known that there are 9 planets and that Pluto is the smallest planet!  For me, it was like saying that A is no longer considered a vowel and is actually a consonant, that 1+1 is actually equal to 3, and that Humpty Dumpty didn’t really have an accidental fall but actually committed suicide.  Do you get my drift?

There have been a number of similar situations like this, where a complete reversal of the truth and fact of things and matters that I have always believed in happens in-my-face.  Sometimes, it’s a nice way of knowing new things, but most of the time it’s an irritating reminder that I have a LOT of catching up to do.

And with this Pluto-is-no-longer-a-planet thing, I guess I have a LOT of catching up to do with matters as simple as a Kindergarten Science lesson!

Don’t laugh now, but it’s true.  And I think that’s something I should seriously work on because now that my 2 kids are in pre-school I definitely wouldn’t want to be caught dead not being able to answer simple questions from my kids.

I turned to my husband and asked him if he knew that Pluto is no longer a planet, and no, he said he didn’t know about that.

Well, at least I’m not the only one from my generation who didn’t know that.

Sometimes, taking comfort in another person’s “clueless-ness” feels great.

Now, I ask you…which planet is the smallest?