Jakob Haferland
It is important that
students bring a
certain ragamuffin
barefoot irreverence
to their studies;
they are not there
to worship
what is known,
but to question it.
-- J. Bronowski
I think there is a lot of truth in
these words. Education is not just
about learning by heart what is
written in the books. It is about
exploring things. It is about being
hungry for knowledge. And that is the
important task teachers have to deal
with today, to give their pupils an
appetite to discover what the world
out there is like, how it was and
how it is going to be.
Teachers have got to make their
students want to learn, they’ve
got to make them desperate
for more.
And as a student it’s important to ask!
Asking questions and searching for
answers -that’s what education and
science is all about as well, even
things which seem to be proven or
theories without a doubt. It’s
never wrong to question or reconsider
things under new circumstances,
another point of view, with new
scientific knowledge or simply with
a new idea.
I always had a questioning mind when
I was at school. Often I got a
funny look for questioning things and
sometimes I didn't really
think through the things I asked,
to be honest. But if I hadn’t got the
point, or when I could see that even
the teacher hadn't got it, I
asked: Not to appear smart,
but because I was interested.
It is just as the old saying tells us:
There are no dumb questions,
only stupid answers.
I really enjoyed reading your post Jakob!
ReplyDeleteEspecially because I defend the same way of thinking as you do.
You will always learn much more questioning the facts, theories, things around you than accepting them as something natural that must be taken for granted. And it is here where curiosity plays the main role.
Misquoting St Paul in one of his letters to the Corinthians where he was tlaking about love, I will say:
"Without curiosity, I'm nothing but a creature who learns with mechanical instincts; without curiosity, I'm nothing but a sponge submerged in a sea of knowledge"