The Hungry Mind Quotes

“Many teachers […] discourage uncertainty, emphasizing instead what they know, or feel the students should know. They are more comfortable encouraging students to learn trustworthy information than to explore questions to which they themselves do not know the answer. Instead of using school as a place to formalize and extend the power of a young child’s zest for tackling the unknown or uncertain, teachers tend to squelch curiosity. [...]

Few teachers readily see that they’re discouraging students’ questions, just as few parents readily see that they’re short-tempered with their children. […] One of the key findings of research is that children are heavily influenced not only by what adults say to them, but also by how the adults themselves behave. If schools value children’s curiosity, they’ll need to hire teachers who are curious. [...] in order to flourish, curiosity needs to be cultivated.”
― Susan Engel, The Hungry Mind: The Origins of Curiosity in Childhood

“People who are curious learn more than people who are not, and people learn more when they are curious than when they are not.”
― Susan Engel, The Hungry Mind: The Origins of Curiosity in Childhood