Source Entry for Schools Kills Curiosity – Geraldo Mesut

Part 1 MLA Citation:

Berliner, Wendy. ““Schools Are Killing Curiosity”: Why We Need to Stop Telling Children to Shut up and Learn.” The Guardian, The Guardian, 28 Jan. 2020, www.theguardian.com/education/2020/jan/28/schools-killing-curiosity-learn.

Part 2 Summary:

In the article “Schools are Killing Curiosity,” Berliner describes to the reader how schools are ruining the creative minds of young children. She starts the article off stating that teachers don’t allow conversations and observations about unrelated topics. This goes against the research done by the University of Michigan CS Mott Children’s Hospital. They state that children do better when they are asking as many questions as possible. The researchers also concluded that the most curious children were the best performers. The lead researcher reported that promoting curiosity in children is an important and under-recognised way of helping the students achieve more academic achievements. An even more surprising research piece from Susan Engel shows that the youngest children in an American elementary school asked between two and five questions an hour. It slowly decreased until it reached the ten and eleven year olds, in which they would go hours without asking a single question. Berliner even went as deep as going to a nursery and sharing the removal of all kids toys that happened. At the beginning stages everyone thought it would be for the worse but, at the end it ended up improving the curiosity of the young children. They started to use the new cardboard boxes, tin cans, old phones, and many more items to create their own toys and games. In conclusion, Berliner believes schools should make more time for students to be creative and to ask more questions. 

Part 3 Rhetorical analysis:

The genre is a feature article. The writing style is informative. The author used a lot of logos in the article, such as the information given by the researchers from the University of Michigan CS Mott Children’s Hospital. The audience of this article is mainly parents, then goes to the general public. The Purpose of this article is that schools are ruining children’s curiosity. Berliner and the Guardian are credible sources because they have research from top tier universities and researchers. The Guardian also won an award after a survey showed 84% of people trust them and their information. Berliner also wrote very successful books such as “How to Succeed at School,” and “Great Minds and How to Grow Them.”

Part 4 Notable Quotes:

“‘School kills curiosity. When do children get to ask questions about things that interest them? As soon as they are at primary school they have to shut up and learn.” (Matt Caldwell)

“Yet the latest American research suggests we should be encouraging questions, because children do better” (Berliner)