When is “Good Enough” Not Enough?

I’d like to start with a thought experiment.

If we all know the environment and culture that is conducive to true learning, why do we choose to so often ignore these essentials and create stale and “do as I say, not as I do” learning opportunities? Why are words like “training”, “remembering”, and “review” consistently the frame we use to portray learning? As a father I’ve started to pay particular attention to how my own kids learn. I’ve noticed the ebb and flow of my own learning. The common element that connects all of these independent factors is curiosity. The ability to ask, ponder, contemplate, hypothesize, question, test, experiment, and then repeat the process, isn’t just confined to the world of science, but it’s also how my sons learn to play new games, how I develop better instructional approaches, and how infants figure out how to get attention when they are alone. Our strong sense of curiosity may be one of our most compelling human qualities.

But, I think we’ve relegated curiosity to the sidelines in most formalized learning situations. Other “priorities” have seemed to take curiosity’s place. The didactic nature of learning, for individuals of all ages, has become by and far the most prevalent transmission of education in our country. Our systems of learning seem much more interested in compliance and standardization as opposed to nurturing curiosity. Our current system of one individual being the conduit of knowledge and skills to another group of individuals seems to reinforce the…