There was plenty to listen to in President Obama's
inaugural address, but something he mentioned towards the end spoke to the work of an Inspired Teacher. He said:
"Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends--hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism--these things are old."
These words may have been directed at the challenges of our economy, environment, and international relations, but they ring true as well for the challenges faced by our schools, and what sticks out most in the list of values is the word curiosity. It's not something we've heard much about in the past decade or so. It's not a word that's written large into the language of
No Child Left Behind, nor has it shown up much in school curriculums or standards.
Curiosity takes us down unknown paths, encourages divergent thinking, has no particular time-frame, rarely has one answer, looks different for every individual, and can be messy. It's not hard to see why it butts heads with the usual requirements of school.
But curiosity lies at the heart of every great discovery in the history of humankind. So it seems strange that we're not encouraging it more in the place where the great innovators of tomorrow go to learn.
How do you bring curiosity into your classroom? The good news is it's already there. Every child in your class hungers to discover something new, to find out how things work, to explore the depths of their own creativity--you just have to find ways to let that natural curiosity flow. Check out the suggestions below!
