Growing Curiosity
“I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.” —Albert Einstein
How curious are you? Do you ask lots of questions? Do you actively try new foods, hobbies, explore new places? Do you wonder about life out loud and share your curious questions with your family?
Curiosity may have killed the cat but our curiosity meter here at Acton is certainly alive and well! This session’s Quest explores the process of being curious as learners try a smorgasbord of passions and learn from their peers as they discover who they are and what they love with vigorous and curious passion. The only requirement is give it a good try!
At Acton learners are deeply curious and in fact this quality is the top quality we look for when admitting prospective Acton families. If a child is curious then they are ready to learn and if a child’s parents encourage curious questions they are a perfect Acton fit! Curiosity drives learning at Acton, it drives interest for learners and curious questions facilitate Guides to grow curiosity daily. This is why we use the Socratic method of questions and this is why every session involves Quest exploration anchored by deep questions.
You may be wondering, is someone born more curious than others? Perhaps, and if you are curious about the neuroscience of curiosity I encourage you to dive into this brief article about curiosity and how the brain retains information. I definitely got very curious and rabbit holed my way to find the full study of University of California Davis professor Dr. Charan Ranganath and his results of curiosity and the brain. If you are a fellow neuroscience geek like me get curious and read study results in his paper titled States of Curiosity Modulate Hippocampus-Dependent Learning via the Dopaminergic Circuit.
If neuroscience isn’t your jam there’s a lot of ways to grow your brain by growing your curiosity. One way, is to follow the lead of Matt Cutts and try something new for 30 days. Watch his TEDEd video here. This was a great Launch inspiration video for learners this week and many picked trying new food for 30 days (broccoli and Swiss chard are their futures, you’re welcome!)
If you’re looking to join your child on their growing curiosity journey here’s a few more ideas to get you started. First, play the game 20 questions (we’ve been playing at school). Simply pick a person or thing, participants have only 20 questions to guess, and game leaders can only answer yes or no. Perhaps play this game on a car ride or at dinner. Second, try a new food or cook with a new food as a family once a week, pick a day and make it special! Third, make a list of hobbies you and your child are interested in and that you don’t know much about. Either create a ranking list or pull a hobby out of a hat. Commit to trying this hobby and set a goal. Perhaps your goal is making a final product or achieving a certain skill. After you’re done reflect on the journey and get curious about what you both learned doing this together.
Curiosity drives us and has been proven to give our bodies dopamine boosts and amazing benefits. If you are still curious join the Curiosity Club and find out more at the Britannica Curiosity Compass, my favorite is finding out your Curiosity Type! Take the quiz here!
Let’s get curious!