Does our curiosity change over the course of our lives?
That’s an interesting question. We may all have different answers to it. It seems like our species — maybe all species — are born with curiosity. Doesn’t it? If you observe babies, kittens, puppies, or even wild animal babies, do they show signs of curiosity?
Does our curiosity play a role in learning? If we had absolutely no sense of curiosity, would we pay attention to the adults around us and start picking up our native language? Our cultural practices and norms?
So, can we take it as a given that we are born with at least some baseline level of curiosity? Maybe some are more curious or less curious than the baseline, but we are all born with it? If that is the case, then what happens to it over the course of our lives? Does it increase or decrease? Stay the same? Or does it depend on the context or situation we are in? Or on our experiences?
Does our curiosity help us learn enough to feel somewhat comfortable navigating our lives in this crazy complex world and then dial down? Do we get to a point where we feel we know enough to get by and therefore don’t need to be so curious anymore? Or, do we have our curiosity beaten out of us by a contrived education system that imposes what is worth learning and devalues curiosity when it focuses on anything extracurricular?
Maybe curiosity is really the force within us that causes us to learn. What is learning, anyway? Could we learn without curiosity? That may depend on our definition of learning, and maybe curiosity too. But let’s say that is true. What would that mean?
Would that mean that the single most important factor in learning is whether the learner is curious about the thing to be learned? If that is true, what are the implications for education systems? Would that mean that a curriculum that is often decided upon by some distant, out-of-touch state legislatures is irrelevant? Unless all of the learners are curious about the lessons prescribed in the curriculum? What are the chances of that? Have you spent anytime in a classroom? Doing so might make that hard to fathom.
Doesn’t our curiosity often manifest itself in different ways? Maybe you’re curios about how musical notes work together. Maybe I’m curious about what makes people tick? Maybe another person is curious about why things are the way they are. Does putting a batch of kids who are roughly the same age and force feeding them the same curriculum at the same time seem rather foolhardy considering all of this? I don’t know.
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If curiosity is what gets us to pay attention to something, is it our most natural state that is primed for learning the thing that has captured our curiosity? How do we get into that state? Can we create situations that spark curiosity and prime learners to enter that natural state? Is that possible on an individual level? To create a situation where one person feels curious enough about something to learn about it? That seems really challenging and complex. If it is possible to pull off, can it be done for the aforementioned batches of students all day every day in a school setting? Or is that just a fool’s errand?
Instead of considering the individual curiosities of the learners, does our education system see that as irrelevant? That regardless of their curiosity levels on the prescribed topics, the kids just need to learn the material? If we proceed with that mentality, is there any actual learning that goes on in such contrived situations? Again, that may depend on your definition of learning.
I could see how enduring this type of environment for thirteen or so years could be a curiosity killer. Can you? Maybe we do have our curiosity beaten out of us? I don’t know.
If we do, how could we get it back? Revive it? Is that even possible? Maybe we can. Maybe it is all about paying attention to what we are paying attention to. And being curious about that. Why do we pay attention to what we pay attention to? Can we be curious about that? Could that kickstart our curiosity once again?
What would it be like to ask ourselves why we pay attention to the thing we pay attention to? What would we find out? Are we distracted or entreated to pay attention to certain things for someone else’s purpose? Like getting us to buy certain things? Or to believe certain things? Who has a stake in what we pay attention to? Who profits from what we pay attention to? I’m just curious about that.
Maybe curiosity is the antidote to being manipulated? What if we always asked why someone is enticing us to pay attention to whatever they want us to pay attention to? Might that give us pause before we just pay attention to it? Or could someone just be trying to manipulate your curiosity?
Is curiosity really connected to all of these things? To learning? To school? To being manipulated? What does that all mean? Maybe curiosity is connected to a lot of things. I don’t know.
Nevertheless, here’s the curious thing about curiosity: the more it gets you to pay attention to things, the more you realize things are connected. So curiosity leads to seeing connection?