Read “School Is Killing Curiosity” by Wendy Berliner and write a response to the questions below:
- What is something you were interested in when you were a kid? Are you still interested in that topic? How did asking questions help you learn more about that topic?
- If so, how has your curiosity changed and grown over the years? And what role did the educational system play in your curiosity (good or bad)?Â
- If you are not interested in this topic anymore, what do you think happened to that interest? Do you remember the specific time you LOST interest? What did you become interested in instead (and why?)
- What did you think of this article? Be honest! Â Â
As a Kid I was the most curious about adulthood, what happens when I grow up to my parents and grandparents age, this is a very interesting topic because I had to ask a lot of questions to my family who was way older then me, sadly they gave me answer that made me even more curious and produced way more questions out of me. my curiosity disappeared the more I aged towards adulthood because I would grew up to know what adulthood is the educational system tried to give a meaning to that topic, I’ve always heard stories of what happen after you graduate college what happens, or if you failed a class i would have my mother in my ears screaming what am going to school for. as i grew up i lost interest in the topic,but my curiosity shifted towards success what does achieving success like. This article wasnt bad it spoked facts and i had a similar thought of how people dont really question what they being thought instead just take in anything.
Something I was interested in as a kid was remote control cars, like any boy, i thought they were the coolest thing in the world. I am somewhat still interested in this but i moved onto the next best thing which is actual cars. Asking questions allowed me to understand how the remote control car worked, how is it powered ? With batteries. So that allowed me form my next question, If I could put more batteries or more powerful batteries in this remote control car will it become faster ? Spoiler; it did not become faster. i learned about efficiency at a young age and overpowering a motor that wasn’t meant to take over X volts was a recipe for disaster. After I became bored of remote control cars, I moved onto the curiosity of how real cars operate and what made them fast. At the time my educational system had no connection to automotive, I used my best friend Google and YouTube to learn as much as possible. I don’t think I’ll ever lose interest with anything that has a motor and wheels. Those curious thoughts allowed me to work on some very fast cars, and one day i will build one of my own. I found this article very interesting because i have seen first hand parents and teachers getting asked questions they don’t have the answer to and instead of their curiosity sparking as well, they brush off the young curious mind.
When I was a kid something that I was always curious about would be if school got easier over the years. I am no longer interested in that topic because I learned over the years that it never gets easier it just gets harder and stressful the more you progress. I didn’t ask any questions I just experienced everything first hand and it answered my question. My curiosity has changed and I am less likely to get curious about anything regarding my topic. The educational system changed my curiosity in a bad way because everything had to do with work, assignments, and stress. I started losing interest in my topic in the beginning years of school which was 2nd grade and I started becoming more interested in playing outside and playing with toys. This article was good because it states facts because kids nowadays do not care about going to school they rather do other fun things.
Dancing all types of dance was something I was interested in when I was a child. I’m no longer interested in dancing. It seems like I’ve grown out of it. Asking questions helps me gain a better understanding of all types of dancing. You would think the popular style of dancing is hip hop, but you are wrong. It’s jazz. My curiosity changed and grown over the year because I feel like I know everything about dancing and I know how to dance too. The education system had a positive impact on my curiosity. My school had a dance team and a step team as well. They were teaching me how to dance and I was learning the history of dance. The school shut down due to COVID-19 caused me to lose interest in dancing during the freshman year. People were able to relate to this article because it spoke straight facts
when I was younger, I always wondered what happened when people died lol. I wondered if we moved to a different world, reincarnated or just died and like be forgotten. I wasn’t too sure about it since I was still young and think about death since death is one of my biggest fears. I’m not too curious about it but I still wonder what happens to us. I’ve been documents that we do reincarnate because there has been proof that little kids say that they have died and even describe and explain how they died in their past life. So that’s what still makes me think and be very curious about but I really believe we do reincarnate.
As a child something I was interested in was design and art. How people can create anything out of the smallest and Stranges things and call it art because it is to them. I am still interested in art because you get to express yourself through it. Learning more about art by asking my parents, especially my mother who likes art and knows all types of art, leading me to find out the many types of art she knows and helping me to understand it more.
My curiosity has changed and gorwn over the years more about specific types of arts such as fashion and jewelry design as well as other types based on that field of art. Education role played a significant role in the art and design, I was learning because you need some skills that you learn through education for example like if I were to want to create a dress I would need to know how much length of fabric I need. Also knowing what certain measurements are and other things that math and design overlap with.
I believe when I could not make a certain outfit because I did not have the money for a pattern and when I started sewing for the first time, I knew that I could not sew right, and I wanted to give up because I felt like it was not for me. My interest grew increasingly into jewelry I felt like it was something I could without stressing about messing up.
As a child, the immensity of space proved irresistibly compelling for me. I was absorbed by the magical glittering in the evening, staring at the night sky, fantasizing about distant galaxies, and wishing for bold travelling in space. The older I grew, the more elaborate my interest became. At this point, rather than dreaming alone, I immerse myself in science and read books, for instance, on black holes, spectacular nebulas and detailed theories of relativity developed by Einstein.
It was not an overnight interest in this profundity. This enthusiasm stemmed from my endless questions and my want to learn more. Every time a question popped into my mind, I would rush to my parents, pester my teachers, or scour the local library. I consider myself fortunate to have been surrounded by educators who didn’t dismiss my queries. Instead, they emphasized that every question, no matter how trivial it seemed, was a doorway to deeper knowledge and understanding.
As the years rolled by, my fascination with space didn’t wane; it intensified. I found myself engaging with scholarly articles on space exploration, getting lost in documentaries detailing the universe’s wonders, and even enrolling in online courses on astrophysics. School, with its structured curriculum, surprisingly played a significant role in this. The chapters dedicated to space in my science textbooks were my favorite, and they always left me yearning for more.
But, like many facets of childhood, not all interests stood the test of time. I once cherished my stamp collection, meticulously cataloging each piece. But as the world rapidly digitized, the charm of physical stamps faded, making way for a newfound interest in the realm of coding and the intricate workings of the internet.
Reading the article, I felt a pang of agreement. The idea that schools, the very places of learning, might be suppressing the innate curiosity in children is unsettling. The modern educational system’s heavy emphasis on standardized testing sometimes shadows the beauty of open-ended exploration. The instance of the ninth grader’s question being curtailed struck a chord. It reminded me of Carl Sagan’s words, “We are all born scientists.” It’s high time we prioritize nurturing this intrinsic curiosity.
When I was younger, I was really interested in learning about things that happened during the holocaust. The struggles Jewish people had to face just because of who they were intrigued me due to how different and evil this time and event was. Asking more questions and reading and watching videos that discuss the events during this time helped me better understand the circumstances Jewish individuals were in. Regardless of how graphic or sensitive some information may be, it allowed me to better understand the severity this event was in our history.
I’m still interested in this topic, however I don’t research about it as often as I did when I was younger. The education system played a big role in my interest in the holocaust because the reason why I became interested in this topic was due to having a unit all about the holocaust. I remember my class reading a book and watching a movie regarding the historical event.
I have not lost interest in the topic, but some topics piqued my interest as current events occur. There has been a rise in violence between Israel and Palestine and I can’t help but think history often repeats itself.
I liked the reading “School is Killing Curiosity” by Wendy Berliner because it allowed me to understand a new perspective I didn’t think about before. Berliner uses cited evidence in order to prove and express her point further.
When I was a kid I was interested in comics, comics turned to art, and art turned into Art Appreciation. I’ve never really asked questions about art, to me it always was and always will be an expression of the artists mind. .Who am I to judge how they release insanity or sanity? My curiosity grew to appreciation once I stopped creating art. I began to question if what I was seeing was what I was feeling because my feelings change every time I re-encountered a painting. In JHS I had an Art teacher, Mr. DeLuca, who taught us names of painters that has stuck with me over the decades. I like the article because it challenges the normal standard of children being seen and not heard. They want children to not only be heard but for them to evolve through curiosity.
Something I was interested in as a kid were cars, I am still very interested in that topic because I grew up liking cars and finding out how they worked. Asking questions helped grow my knowledge in the car industry and how car parts work and how they work in harmony. Because of school my love for cars started to die when I was 10 but when I turned 13 my love for cars was reignited. From the time when u was 10 to 13, I ended up falling in love with computers and I still do keep up with the recent technology for computers. As a matter of a fact, I am going to go to summer college to learn how to build engines. I liked the article because they brought up a lot of good points to how school is killing curiosity.
As a kid, I was interested in cooking; yes, i am still interested in cooking; asking questions made me more curious.
My curiosity has grown because the more ask questions the more interested I am. My educational system played an essential role in my life because my school noticed I was curious about cooking so they added cooking class to our curriculum. I agree with the article because The notion that schools, which are supposed to be learning spaces, could potentially repressthe natural curiosity in children is discomfiting.
While I was a kid, I was deeply interested in wooden train toys, also trains in general. I’m not necessarily interested in wooden train toys now, but I am more interested in trains a bit, more so the electrical design surrounding them, how they function. I should say that I am more intrigued on electronics now. Asking questions made me acquire answers that I wanted to. My curiosity has somewhat stayed the same over time, however I’d like to say it went down just a bit. The education system throughout middle – high school had really bored me out a bit. They were just general classes to me, nothing related to what I was truly interested in, besides mathematics. I guess I should say the education system throughout that interval had a negative effect on my curiosity. I am not really interested in this topic anymore; I lost interest since all the focus was towards the wooden toys. Growing up to be a teenager pushed me away from that, even from before I was already away from them. I just didn’t have a use for them anymore since I had more interest in electronics after that. Electronics are just intriguing in general, even electricity. Electricity is practically the source to everything that requires power. The article was nice, honestly. It allowed me to see another perspective.