Questions, questions

All friend of mine recently told me that his child's school has complained to him about his son. It seems his son has been asking too many questions, and it's interfering with the running of the class. The young lad keeps asking why he has to do certain tasks in the lessons. Teacher is getting sick of having to justify everything she is doing. Oh dear. How disruptive. What an unruly child...

Actually, that teacher probably needs a kick up the backside. What was she thinking? Why would any teacher want to stop children questioning? Why would any school discourage children from asking 'why'? Surely, questioning is a fundamental part of learning at any age. Asking questions is always more effective than receiving answers, because it opens up all the possibilities and allows the questioner to frame the world in their own unique, individual way. From questions come other questions. From those come learning. Children need a psychologically safe environment within which they can question, explore and make mistakes, with no negative repercussions. The moment teachers stifle a child's curiosity is the moment school ceases to be relevant, to that child, to the community, to society at large. If ever there was an ideal place for children to be encouraged to ask 'why?' it has to be the school. The problem with the current school system is that far too many demands are placed on teachers, and there is little time left to spend on exploration and discovery.

More time and space needs to be allocated during the school day for thinking and questioning. Children need to ask questions, because it's a natural part of their cognitive development. But when the school systems as it stands, serves to knock their curiosity out of them, something has to change. It's interesting to read Sir Ken Robinson's take on this issue. He suggests that as children grow older, their curiosity and their creativity tend to decline. This is not because they are 'growing up' he says, but rather because they have been 'educated'. Schooling has knocked the curiosity out of them. Alvin Toffler once said 'We don't need to reform the system, we need to replace the system'. He could easily have been talking about schooling.

I had six faithful serving men, who taught me all I knew. Their names are what and why and when, and where and how and who.

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Questions, questions by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at steve-wheeler.blogspot.com.