Know Your Why!: Why be Curious?

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost The Poetry Foundation

I have been very focused on incorporating the 4Cs in my classroom and to support our teacher professional development for the past several years. I was initially inspired by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. Recently, I have begun to add the 5th C of curiosity into my teaching and learning. Robert Frost's the Road Not Taken is a great example of how curiosity can impact a student's future in profound ways.

If you've ever been in a car with a curious child you will recognize that a child's curiosity is endless. They will bombard you with question after question as they seek to understand the world around them. This is an incredible aspect of our human intellect that must be nurtured and encouraged through adulthood. We must encourage our students to never stop asking questions and pursuing the answers. This is how the world becomes a better place. We need more innovators.

I fully realize that curiosity is a difficult skill to understand and nurture in a world of standardized testing, but I don't think we can let that be an excuse to not try. I personally plan to to encourage more exploration in my classroom Not easy in an AP Curriculum, but I hope I can make it work.

We started 2nd Semester with and activity to inspire some curiosity: