Curiosity

We all know very young children that ask "why?" as if they were Jeremy Paxman grilling a politician on Newsnight, but why don't we hear more older children and adults asking the same question?

Has curiosity and wonder been untrained out of us? These questions don't easily come from education that tries to fit everybody into the same box and teaches to a test. So how do we bring curiosity back to learning? My latest idea is a Wonder Wall. This is where each student can jot down ideas and questions that they are curious about, and we'll discuss or write about in a future lesson.

Just yesterday, the topic was a real brain-stretcher: "could a robot have written the Harry Potter books?" (The correct answer of course is: "no" to The Chamber of Secrets and "possibly" to The Philosopher's Stone 😉).

Honestly though, it's wonderful to see children giving passionate responses and developing their persuasive and critical thinking skills at the same time.

Einstein said that "One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvellous structure of reality," and who would I be to disagree with that?

What do you think? Should curiosity be valued more in schools?
Could Harry Potter have been written by a robot?