Can't we use pencils forever?

“You have to start writing neatly”, I admonished my fourth grader. “Or they wouldn’t let you start using a pen next term.”

“Oh good”, he exclaimed. “I don’t want to write with a pen. What if I make a mistake- how will I rub it out?”

“When you start using a pen”, his younger brother piped up, “you will stop making mistakes. Big people don’t make mistakes, do they?”

Did he realize how profound his statement was? The day you stop admitting to your mistakes, isn’t that the day you stop growing? I wish we could all use pencils forever.