Chinese character etymologies

Trawling the web today I rediscovered www.zhongwen.com which is an amaaazing site which allows you to explore Chinese character etymologies. They have a featured word of the day, and I thought I'd add it to my site to pique your interest:

Previous words have included 孝 (appears in: 忠孝 - filial piety) which clearly shows a child (子) supporting the aged (老). It's wierd how one can read and use these characters for years without stopping to think why they look the way they do. I think if Chinese was taught this way from an earlier stage then characters would cease to be such an abstract memory game... Anyone taking notes?