I was blessed to grow up where and when I did. I spent much of my childhood at and around my grandmother’s house, which is only a mile east of my current school. However, in the early 1980s, Kentucky Avenue was only a stone’s throw from the elementary school where my mom worked in the office, where I would have my first job, and where I would eventually (even though it’s in a new location) find myself leading.
Childhood in that time would be utterly foreign to students and parents today. Summer days at my grandmother’s would consist of a full breakfast and cartoons, and then somewhere around 10:00, we would be banished to “go outside and play .”We would walk all over Hazelwood. We would go over to the school and slip into the old gym far away from the office to play basketball and swing on the climbing rope. I’m still amazed that elementary schools were good with having 10-year-olds climb a rope straight up into the rafters nearly two floors above with little to no protection from falling. It was a very different time! We would leave the gym without letting anyone know, head to the post office to check the mail, and visit with the postmaster. We would head to Toot’s hardware and visit with “Toot” Nichols. This was the hardware store where I would pick up my first pocket knife. I still remember him having a giant moose head on the wall. After making our rounds, we would wind up at the counter at the Hazelwood Pharmacy around lunch. If we were lucky enough to have some spare change, we might be able to order a cheeseburger or a real deal cherry coke! To this day, I can’t stand the bottled cherry cokes; they don’t hold a candle to those from the pharmacy.
Looking back, I was given the opportunity to explore, embrace curiosity, and search for adventure. I was given permission to wonder, and I wouldn’t trade the wandering spirit that the streets of Hazelwood cultivated for anything! I understand that the world has changed, and it’s more difficult to give students these kinds of experiences today. But we must try.
We can start fostering curiosity by giving our students and our children opportunities to ask questions. I hate to admit that as I reflect on how I parented, I probably didn’t provide as many opportunities for questions as I should have. It’s easy in the hustle of our buddy lives to forget the importance of allowing children to figure it out for themselves. Our temptation is to give them the answer and move on, leaving very little time for wonder or productive struggle.
We can foster curiosity by providing them with a wide variety of experiences. Giving children the freedom and space to wonder and seek answers to questions we may not be asking. Depending on the experience and your comfort level, this might also require us to give them just the right amount of guardrails to keep them safe while they both wonder and wander.
Finally, we can foster curiosity by showing them how to dig deeper and understand that they can find answers to questions in various ways. Many of the lessons I learned in childhood came from watching the adults around me model it for me. I encourage you to pay attention to how you model learning to the young people in your life. What kind of learner do they see when they look at you.
Looking back, I was blessed to spend so many summer days learning independently through these adventures. My little brother recently posted on Facebook that our parents have no idea how many miles we rode on our bikes during the summers around Hazelwood. I wouldn’t trade those miles for anything and desperately want to find a way to recreate it for the next generation.
Empty Your Cup... 