i n t h i s i s s u e : PR I M A R Y PA R E N T/C H I L D N IG H T • SH A R E D E XCI T E M E N T A BOU T R E A DI NG • PA R E N T PA R T N E R S AT T H E H IG H S C HO OL
UT O K EC GA L A H C N R O U C TI O ! AU S E R T IN VO LU M E X X , N U M B E R 13 A biweekly publication of The Post Oak School
The
POST
F E B RUA RY 2 0 , 2 015 Available online at www.postoakschool.org
W H E R E H AV E A L L T H E Q U E S T ION S G ON E? by John Long, Head of School
“W
hen my graduate students and I observed suburban elementary classrooms in 2006, looking for signs of curiosity, we found a surprising absence of it. To gauge curiosity, we looked for: • The number and types of questions students asked (anything from ‘Where is Sudan?’ to ‘When is recess?’)
• Stretches of time that students spent gazing at something (for instance, standing in front of an aquarium observing fish.) • Times when a student physically investigated something (such as opening the back of a cassette machine.) “For the most part, kindergartners asked very few questions and spent little time investigating the