Lies to children

So I do not propose that you lies to children, but if a five year old asks you what the sun is and what is it made of telling them the complete and total truth would be as bad as lying to them.  Follow me:

The Sun is the where we get light it is like a large fire and is far away

Nothing exactly wrong but not even close to the truth.  But it builds on what they know without blowing their minds.  Or you could tell them that it is a ball of superheated Plasmic hydrogen and helium under intense pressure fusing the three isotopes of hydrogen to create more helium and energy, in the triple-alpha reaction, that passes from one atom to the next ionizing the plasmatic gas and re-emitting it as light in a long journey from the center of the star to the surface that takes a million years before it is reemmited at the speed of light as a wave and a particle to bounce around our environment to give us the light we see and the heat we feel.  That explanation is also correct and would fry the brains of most Highschool students let alone the five year old.

When the student understands the first statement and the building blocks of the next stage you can tell them more:  The Sun is a star at the center of our solar system.  Stars are made of hot gases.

An introduction to the solar system, some five year olds know this better than their parents, but some don't know a thing, so an introduction to the solar system is in order.  Knowledge of the first three stages of matter, solid, liquid and gas is necessary.  Fire is a gas.  

That explanation is good enough for most people for their entire life, but some people what to know more.  

The sun is one of countless stars in the galaxy, and they are made of a super heated form of gas that acts as a liquid called plasma.  It is held in place by gravity and the gravity of the star compresses the hydrogen in the star and fuses it to make helium and energy.  

E=MC^2, basic cosmology, the life history of a star, luminosity of stars, nuclear fusion.

People sometimes want to know more and that goes to the limit of my knowledge, the details of the stages of the triple-alpha reaction, the secondary reactions that give us lithium and everything up to carbon and oxygen, not to mention the blow out of the star and the possible creation of higher level periodic elements and how this happens.  Singularities and Hawking radiation and the big bang from the first few milliseconds to the present.

Asking one question could have answers that trigger an exploration of science and mathematics.

Where does "this" rock come from?  Do you stop at sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic in grade four or do you talk about the history of the planet, right from the creation of elements in the hearts of long dead suns billions of years ago and the long process of creation on Earth for millions of years.

We lie to children so not to overwhelm them while providing them the knowledge that they can understand.

Go lie to children arm them with the truth so they can find more truths by lying to them.