I was reading an article in the Times about today's solar eclipse, which will be visible in the far south of South America, the Pacific, and Antarctica, when my eye caught a headline in the related article column. Is Pluto a Planet? It asked. And what is a planet, anyway? Test your knowledge here.
Well, I clicked over right away because I have some feelings about the topic, and I love a good newspaper quiz. I was never truly on board with Pluto's demotion to a dwarf planet back in 2005. The loss of that oft-repeated mnemonic, My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas, alone convinced me it was a silly change. (Although I did laugh recently when I heard the updated version where the very excellent mother serves naan. Go ahead, say it.)
For several years, my sixth-grade English colleagues and I used the picture book A Place for Pluto by Stef Wade as a model text for the type of children's story we taught our students to write in the fiction unit. Not only does that text have a crystal clear plot chart, but it also has a solid curriculum connection. It was in the liner notes at the end that I learned the details of Pluto's redesignation. (I also realized that none of my students were even alive in the days that Pluto was a planet, but that's another story.)
All of this is just to explain my eagerness to read the article and take the quiz. Anyhow, there were five questions, starting with Do you think Pluto should be considered a planet? (of course, I chose Yes.) and including Do you think our moon should be a planet? (For which I gleefully selected No! What part of moon do you not understand?).
My results called me a sentimentalist, maybe because I refused to extend planethood to Eris and Ceres, but I can live with that. Because sometimes? My very earnest mind just stays up nights, pondering.
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