Pith

By age six, he knew a secret. You could not see the meat from outside. You couldn't tell how much meat was inside. You couldn't tell if it was good meat. Not just by looking at the whole coconut. You had to crack it open. You looked at the husk. Was it thick? Did it have good fibers? What about the eyes? These clues told you about the meat. The outside clues told you what was inside.

When *Pith* was eleven, he had a big idea. New words were like coconuts. The meaning was the meat inside. The sentences around it were the husk. You can't see the meaning just by looking at the word. You must look at the husk. The words around it. They tell you about the meat.

*Pith* walked to ReadQuest Academy. He was eighteen then. For nine years, he has taught there. He teaches how to find word meanings.

In his class, he starts every first lesson the same way. He has a real coconut on his desk. It's small. He cracks it open. Right in front of everyone. He shows them the outside husk. Then he shows them the white meat inside.

He says, "You couldn't see the meat before. Not when the coconut was whole. The husk didn't tell you the meat's taste. But the husk thickness... the fibers... the eyes... they gave clues. They told you if the meat was good. That's outside information. Words work the same way."

He shows them how. He writes on the board:

"The hiker felt his quadriceps burning as he climbed the steep slope, the muscles in his thighs straining with every step."

He points to quadriceps. He says, "This word is new to many of you. Don't look it up yet. Look at the words around it. The sentence says: muscles in his thighs. That's the husk. It's the surrounding context. The meat — the meaning of quadriceps — is muscles in the thigh. The words around it told you the meaning. No dictionary needed!"

He gives another example.

"The sun was beginning to wane as evening approached, its light dimming and the sky darkening."

He points to wane. He says, "Look at the husk. Beginning to ___ as evening approached, light dimming, sky darkening. What does that tell you? The meat — wane means to get smaller or dimmer. The words around it gave you the meaning."

The students always love this. It makes them feel smart. They used to think every new word needed a dictionary. *Pith* shows them something else. Most new words don't need a dictionary. The words around them are usually enough. They tell you what you need to know.