“We get wise by asking questions, and even if these are not answered, we get wise, for a well-packed question carries its answer on its back as a snail carries its shell.”
— Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Perhaps one of the most joyful experiences of being an educator in general, and at Keystone in particular, is hearing questions from students. They can range in complexity from the innocence of a Little School student, “Mr. Handmaker, did you know you are bald?” to the sophistication of a high school senior, “So, how do you think the Gaza-Israel conflict should be solved?” Whatever the basis of the question, we applaud students’ demonstrating our Cobra Code core value of curiosity, having the courage to put themselves out there, acknowledge that there’s something they don’t know, and ask for clarification or guidance.
Asking a question can be hard, especially for students like those who attend Keystone who can at times be perfectionist. Part of our job is helping children and adolescents realize that it’s through our questions that we grow and learn. They should not be embarrassed (unless they zoned out during class and the teacher literally just explained the concept) or fearful of the way they will be viewed for posing a query.
On the contrary, a good question can be as hard to formulate as a complicated answer. For this reason, we should not assume that children always know not just what to ask, but how to ask a question.
I was thinking about the power of questions last month as I attended a visiting author lesson for students in 3rd and 4th grades. Thanks to librarian Jeanette Vilagi who invited children’s book author Jessica Fries-Gaither, we were able to learn how to develop questions, particularly for scientific study. This lesson could not come at a better time as these children begin their science fair projects. (Note I say that these students, rather than their parents, are doing science fair.)
The Science Fair at Keystone is “kind of a big deal.” As Mr. Tijerina reminds us, Keystone students once wore t-shirts proclaiming “Science Fair is our football.”
Perhaps what makes Science Fair so exciting is the way students choose a topic that they wish to study, pursue the research wherever it may take them, learn that their initial hypotheses may or may not have been correct, and share their findings to an audience of peers. This is what real scientists do, and it’s a pleasure to watch our students have this experience.
But the whole process starts with a question, and this is why it’s so important that students learn how to ask. As Ms. Fries-Gaither read from her book “Wild Wonderings,” she explained that there are three types of questions-research, observation, and testable-and there are different ways to answer them.
We can answer research questions by:
- Reading books
- Watching videos
- Using online resources
- Interviewing experts
Understanding what kind of question they are asking is fundamental to a student’s process of discovery since it informs them of how to then find a solution. In addition, knowing what kind of question to ask and when to pose it can guide them through the stages of research and possibly prevent students from floundering with no direction.
In the same way that on certain topics, we don’t teach students what to think but how to think, we help children and young adults learn not only what specific question to ask, but how to ask it. Whether a query reflects previous knowledge or comes from a total lack of understanding, we want our students to be able to create a question and then be brave enough to ask it.
