![]() Bassett, we analyze 18 different creatures, from animals to insects, and characterize their unique curiosity styles. According to Archilochus, the hedgehog "knows one thing," but the fox "knows many things." Following that instinct, in my book " Curious Minds," written with neuroscientist Dani S. Does your child like to know everything about a few things? Or a few things about everything?įor the ancient Greeks, these two styles were best characterized by the hedgehog and the fox. One study I was involved in, for example, led by communications scientist David Lydon-Staley, showed that people who browse Wikipedia have a tendency either to be busybodies-clicking on radically different pages or hunters-clicking on closely connected pages. Research indicates there are multiple dimensions or styles of curiosity. While children are naturally curious, they may express and pursue their curiosity in different ways. Paying attention to each child's own style of curiosity, and instilling in them a sense of pride in that style, will do much to equip kids to maintain curiosity. How can parents protect their children's curiosity? ![]() She sees Black women as being especially discouraged from their academic and scientific aspirations.Ĥ. This is especially harmful for students whose creative intelligence is already less likely to be encouraged, such as students of color and students with learning differences, including autism, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder or dyslexia.Īs astrophysicist and Black feminist author Chanda Prescod-Weinstein emphasizes in her recent book, " The Disordered Cosmos," not everyone is encouraged to reach for-or understand-the stars. In his experience, it was more important for students to behave and learn the assigned material than for them to explore their interests and go out on a limb. As a result, many teachers teach "compliance" more than "curiosity," as Ta-Nehisi Coates puts it, reflecting on his time as a student in Baltimore schools. To make matters more complicated, educators are often up against impossible odds of growing class sizes, reduced resources and increased pressure to achieve generalized, measurable outcomes. Since teacher training focuses on conveying content and cultivating basic skills, teachers may not know how to facilitate curiosity. How good are K-12 schools at fostering curiosity? Lastly, when schools train children to ask only specific kinds of questions in specific sorts of ways, it can limit their opportunities to innovate by constraining their interest and inquiry into narrow channels.ģ. Parenting styles that emphasize the value of questions only as a means to an end-such as correct answers-limit children's capacity to cultivate questions for their own sake. Internet search engines and smartphones that give immediate answers limit children's ability to sit with their questions and stew over their problems. Another study showed that fifth grade students, on average, expressed curiosity-via question asking, directed gazing or object manipulation- less than once every two hours. One study found that preschoolers ask an average of 26 questions an hour at home, but less than two per hour at school. While research clearly shows children have a high interest in asking questions, that interest may dull over time, particularly in school settings. Some people I meet bemoan the loss of their childlike wonder, while others are proud to have maintained or expanded it. ![]() But what happens to that curiosity as we age? Her research confirms that children are bursting with curiosity, expressed in the things they touch, the way they talk and how they interact with others. Psychologist Susan Engel validates this sense in her book " The Hungry Mind." Engel observes children's curiosity at work in different environments, from preschool nature walks and middle school science labs to asking questions around the dinner table. Creatures big and small, from elephants to bees, engage in exploratory foraging as they discover new territory and resources, while monkeys-and even cells and viruses-innovate new behaviors.Īmong human beings, most people-scholars and non-scholars alike-have a sense that children are especially curious. Beings of all sorts seek information, explore their environments and innovate new ways of solving problems. Curiosity is a natural capacity, present in nonhuman animals as well as in humans from a very young age.
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