A Delicate Balance of Inquiring Minds vs Laziness

Back in my younger days I had to grab a copy of the trusty Encyclopedia Britannica, if I wanted to know anything. There was no Google, Yahoo!, or Bing, and the only available Jelly was the edible kind. Things sure have changed a lot in the last twenty years. These days we get the answers to every question imaginable, from the internet. It’s almost as if books don’t even exist, unless they’re being read for entertainment. So with such easy access to information it would be acceptable to think that we’re constantly surrounded, by the most informed and well educated people of any generation… but we’re not.

“But Brett, what’s wrong with getting information easily?” I hear you say. Nothing is wrong with getting information easily, however there’s a difference between getting information easily and only getting an answer. Take www.askjelly.com for example. This is a tool designed for people to ask a question, any question, and get provided with the answer (or at least a answer). While this makes getting information incredibly easy, it leaves those using it with a lack of understanding as to how their answer is obtained. To uncover the answer someone had to read a considerable amount of information, summarise that information, share that information as a document to download and read, and finally someone else condensed their document in to an answer (usually) no longer than a tweet.

All of this is leaving us with a generation of kids that think they’re smart because they know the answer, when they’re doing nothing more than recycling a line or two of text they’ve been provided. My point is, they didn’t do the research to understand the wider issue, so how can they possibly form their own opinion or even understand what they’re discussing? If they’re not reading the books, if they don’t write a summary in their own words with their own opinion, how on earth can they be expected to absorb all of this knowledge? The short answer is, they can’t. In fact, it’s unreasonable for us to expect them to understand something that they’ve never had to fully consume and learn.

So what’s the answer? Blocking of search engines, and other useful tools? No, that’s not the answer. The answer is in the hands of our parents, and educators. It’s our responsibility to help our kids to understand where the real information, and answers come from. Information and knowledge comes from hard work and making the textual journey from consumption, to digestion, and finally education. Most importantly we have a responsibility to encourage active listening and learning, and to ensure our children understand the difference between open and closed questions. We must encourage the asking of questions and not to be fearful of asking the wrong question, to ensure their minds continue to grow. We all want the best for our children, however wanting the best and contributing to their best are two very different things. Let us all be contributors to the education of our sons, daughters, nieces, nephews, and grandchildren.

By the way, this isn’t limited to kids. We owe it to ourselves to take the exact same steps for our own learning and development. Invest in yourself, and you’ll impress yourself.