Why Do Kids Always Ask Why, Even In The Classroom?

Have you ever noted how some kids have so many questions and so much curiosity? Perhaps you were like this at first, and eventually realized that adults and authority figures like teachers got annoyed if you asked too many questions. It turns out the questions we ask are often way more important than the answers and those of us who continue to ask questions develop a far better understanding of the world.

Not long ago, I discussed this topic with a retired school teacher from the UK, specifically why some kids keep asking "Why?" and even as you answer, they ask "why" to your answer and so on. The school teacher noted:

"Yes, I have taught Why kids. Some were genuinely interested, others thought it was cool and it made them look intelligent. It didn't, and it held up the lecture. All teachers are very restricted in what they can teach in the curriculum. Everyone has to toe the party lines. The interested kids took enough to satisfy themselves, and ran with it."

This of course makes it tough for teachers and if students ask "why" too much, this teacher would eventually say; "Sorry luv, I can't help you. If you have more questions, you'll have to go to the library and look it up yourself."

Turns out the truly curious and interested kids did, today of course, it's much easier, "Google It on your smartphone," and get your answer in 0.00291183717 seconds and chose from one of the 10,000 results to your inquiry.

Yes, that is very interesting, I agree with her solution in a classroom-teaching environment, and yes, I've noted the "Why" kids that just do it to be funny or disruptive. It's easy to tell the difference between those and the ones who are generally interested, because the interested kids say "oh" and then modify their next question to something extremely pertinent - although in a classroom would also be disruptive even if it piques the curiosity of other students who enjoy diving into the subject matter. When kids are truly interested and like the topic, enjoy learning they learn extremely fast and do very well in their understanding of the new material. I also agree that if a student is not interested in self-directed study to satisfy their curiosity - then an instructor can't help much.

I guess the instructor needs to help them develop the interest, by allowing the subject matter to be interesting, and it's mostly all interesting. We have a problem in our schools in the US, 1/2 the teachers don't care, the other 1/2 care very much. one year with a non-caring teacher of a child can be a disaster for their mental development. I wish more teachers would hear the call of Sir Ken Robinson on teaching. Of course, our problem in the US is the top driven challenges in our schools, teachers told how to teach, what to teach, when to teach, when to test, etc. - and so it's hard to develop the individual minds. To your point about... "look it up" if you want to know more.

Today, our kids can look up anything they want any time they want, the Oxford Library on steroids - Internet - Google. It's just laziness not to, it's all there, but alas, often the students desires are not. I'd blame the system, not the teachers, well not all the teachers, some, I mean burn-out is very common in a top driven school system - those teachers teach because they want to, until they find they can't, then it's just a paycheck and pension, they are trapped - like many of their students I suppose?

Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on the Future of Education. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net.


 By Lance Winslow


Article Source: Why Do Kids Always Ask Why, Even In The Classroom?