Asking Questions

by Patrick Appel

Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman claim that American creativity is declining. Some of their conclusions are suspect, but much the research they round-up on creativity is new to me and well worth pondering:

Preschool children, on average, ask their parents about 100 questions aday. Why, why, why—sometimes parents just wish it'd stop. Tragically,it does stop. By middle school they've pretty much stopped asking. It'sno coincidence that this same time is when student motivation...