Rails - Mar 2006 - call activerecords private methods

Maybe there is an obvious answer and I''m being dumb,
but why does activerecord allow me to call it''s
private methods?
>> i = Item.find(33)
=> #<Item:0x2360080 @attributes={ ... output removed
>> i.price = ''25''
=> "25"
>> i.update
=> 1
>> i.create_or_update
=> 0
>> i.price = ''26''
=> "26"
>> i.create_or_update
=> 1

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