The Essence of Curiosity
Picture this: every one of us is born with an insatiable curiosity, a burning desire to explore, discover, and make sense of the world around us. It’s in our DNA. From the moment we enter this world, we’re like little detectives, using our senses to unravel the mysteries of our surroundings. Babies touch everything, taste everything, listen to every sound – it’s how they build their understanding of the world, piece by piece.
In the early years, this drive to explore and play is what we call curiosity. It’s the cornerstone of all learning, the spark that ignites the flame of inquiry. As children question, experiment, and test, they’re not just learning – they’re sculpting their brains, weaving a complex web of knowledge, known as schema, that grows with every experience. Listen to episode 17 of the Blooming Curious Podcast where I take a deep dive into what’s happening to curiosity.
Factors Diminishing Curiosity
But here’s the thing: despite being born with this natural curiosity, it often fades as we grow older. Why? Well, there are a few culprits:
Poverty and Family Dynamics: Research, like Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, shows us that children raised in impoverished or unstable environments face significant challenges in nurturing their curiosity. They lack the resources and opportunities needed to fuel their thirst for knowledge. Check out this post to learn more about how Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs impacts children’s learning.
Dr Bruce D. Perry, MD, PhD identifies the next three factors as responsible for the extinguishing of curiosity.
Fear and Adult Disapproval: Fearful environments and adult disapproval can suppress a child’s natural inclination to explore and ask questions.
The Absence of Adult Caregivers: Without supportive adults to share discoveries and provide reinforcement, children may struggle to thrive.
Find out more about Dr Perry here.
The Role of Technology: While technology can be a gateway to curiosity, excessive screen time can also dampen it. With one-dimensional digital experiences, children miss out on the rich, multi-sensory learning that real-world exploration provides. Educators around the world are witnessing how children’s language, vocabulary and behaviour are deteriorating in line with their increased access to technology. The passive reliance on technology for entertainment and information plays a role in limiting curiosity. It removes the active desire to question and wonder, and this lack of curiosity, I believe opens the door for others to exploit us, we only need to think about how the power of advertising affects each of us and our decisions to understand this. The one factor that can change all this and ensure that children do not become passive consumers, but rather active creators, is us, the adults in children’s lives.
The role of the adult: Perhaps it’s not the device or the technology itself that stifles children’s curiosity, but instead how we as adults, introduce and monitor the use of the technology. It is up to the adults in children’s lives to create opportunities for growth and curiosity and to ensure by our own actions that we ourselves don’t become the passive consumers of information and technology, but rather the active pursuers of it, so that we don’t extinguish by our actions or lack of them, that flame of curiosity that naturally burns in children.