The Wonder of Wonder
“How can I help my kids ‘switch on’ to learning?”
“How does one promote creative, enthusiastic, inquisitive learners in a public school setting?”
“Most of us see our students for one school year and that’s it, they move on. How can we expect to make a lasting difference in their lives within such an artificial and institutional learning environment?”
These are great questions, the short answer to which is - by contagion!
It is true. If you want to produce ‘switched on’, enthusiastic, naturally inquisitive learners for life, be one! Yes. Be one…right along side the children in your care, not on top of them, not in front of them, not facing them, but right along side them… be the kind of student you are hoping to inspire them to be!
“Wisdom begins in wonder!” said our wise old friend Socrates.
Wonder itself is a magic key to learning… Why?
Let’s wonder about wonder a moment…
Wonder is a bright something more than curiosity or inquisitiveness, although it contains those qualities, but with something more.
Wonder is not cold inquiry. It is not calculating. Wonder somehow contains a warmth and humanity that magically opens doors.
Wonder is not fantasy. It is as real and valid as our very next heartbeat! It involves the mind but in partnership with the finer emotions and feeling life.
It is irresistible, this very human property and faculty we call wonder. The more we use it, the more it grows.
Make it part of your daily bread… to wonder…out loud… facing the same direction as the young wonders in your care.
To hear wonder-inspired songs for children go to Do Re Mi Dragon - “All Things of Wonder”…Also on Heartbeat of the Future is “I Wonder What the Sun Knows” at http://talkinghandstalkingfeet.com/music.html
