School is not a place for curiosity
students already "want to know things." It is school that marginalizes the natural curiosity our kids enter school with. I watch my own children at home pursue learning (not related to required school work) with pure delight and tenacity. They try and try and try never feeling that their failures are wasted time or a judgment on their value as human beings. Instead, their curiosity piqued, they dive right in and learn.
School is not a place for curiosity, not a place for diving right in. It is a place were everything is prescribed, learning defined, and judgment made. The goal of school is like tracing - if the student can render an exact replica of the original they pass, they are lauded, they become the valedictorian . . . what they can't do is create, innovate, and as Ms Michlewitz accurately points out, can't formulate an independent thought or engineer a persuasive argument. They have been taught not to do that . . . much to this country's detriment.
