I spend the second half of the weekend reflecting on why this young child’s curiosity was so surprising to me. I babysat children when I was younger. I tutored, student-taught, taught and was a principal, surrounded by students from age 4-18. I have years of experience working with students in and outside of school. What I realized, however, is that the more time I spend in classrooms now, the less I hear questions being asked by students. Throughout my classroom visits, I hear teachers asking questions. This then leads to individual students responding to those questions, or students talking to partners about their responses. Occasionally, this leads to students writing responses. But it is a rare occurrence when the students are asked to generate questions. And I don’t just mean questions when they are confused and need a specific support.

 I want to hear our students’ creativity come out in the form of questions. Children are naturally curious (as anyone who spends any time with toddlers can attest!). How is it that a typical day in school can stifle those questions? What can we do to encourage questions? How do we provide meaningful opportunities for our students to ask authentic questions and share their thinking throughout the learning process? How do we structure the school day so that students not only ask their own original questions, but spend time seeking out answers to their questions through research, collaboration, and discovery? What does that classroom sound like?