Source entry “Schools kill curiosity” – Jelani Creary

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


Summary
“Schools kill curiosity” by Wendy Berliner is about how in the quest to produce hard working students, children are institutionalized to prioritize focusing and good behavior, instead of satiating their curiosity which’ll allow them to become better critical thinkers. “When teachers teach young children not to ask questions… it is not surprising that high-performing students… were found to be less curious, because they saw curiosity as a risk to their results” paragraph 12, contradicts the idea that “Children are born curious.. it is one of the critical methods humans adopt to learn” paragraph 8. Oftentimes students aren’t able to grasp new topics and ideas on their own, because they’ll have questions about aspects of it that don’t make sense, or things they wish to know more about. These questions are what develop a persons ability to think critically and understand topics better. However since children are being told to stop being as curious they stop wanting to learn more and that hinders their developmental ability. “Children in an american suburban elementary school asked between two to five questions in a two-hour period. Even worse, as they got older the children gave up asking altogether.” paragraph 9. Since children are being shunned and told to not ask questions, their eager minds stop yearning for new information so they’ll give up trying to learn more outside of what they’re taught inside of schools. The killing of curiosity is endangering a critical thinking and learning ability of children nationwide.


Rhetorical Analysis
The genre is feature piece. The author Wendy Berliner is credible as she wrote a book “How to Succeed as School. What every parent should know”. The Guardian, which this report is published by, is known for investigative journalism making them a reliable source. The intended audience are parents who’re currently looking for reliable schools for their children, Wendy Berliner wants her audience to realize that most schools aren’t allowing children to satiate their curiosity and live up to their full potential. This is a current issues as the article was published in 2020, which was only 4 years ago. We can assume that this article was written because the author, Wendy Berliner, is also a parent hence why she wrote her book. The author and source this article is from are both extremely credible, and logical citing various other sources of research to support Berliners statements.


Notable Quotes
“Children should be prompted and encouraged to ask questions even though that can be challenging for the teacher,” he says. “We do need to find some time for questions during the day. There is not enough time in schools for creativity and following up on curiosity.” (Berliner 20)

“Teachers who concentrate on developing focus and good behaviour because of the links to good academic performance, now need to take on board that developing curiosity could be even more important.” (Berliner 6)

“When her team logged classroom questions, she found the youngest children in an American suburban elementary school asked between two and five questions in a two-hour period. Even worse, as they got older the children gave up asking altogether. There were two-hour stretches in fifth grade (year 6) where 10 and 11-year-olds failed to ask their teacher a single question.” (Berliner 9)