The Powerful Force of Curiosity
Curiosity killed the cat. Eve was curious about the forbidden fruit. Pandora was curious about what was in that box.
Parables and proverbs of the past often warn against the dangers of seeking. Today, this notion is outdated. We claim to no longer accept the idea that we’re all better off minding our own business and accepting given answers. Seeking new questions is valued… or is it? It’s one thing to claim to be in support of curiosity and quite another to allow it to thrive in any given environment.
In a 2015 PwC survey of more than one thousand CEOs, many cited “curiosity” as a critical leadership trait. Yet companies are often accused of discouraging curiosity because it can lead to questions that undermine authority, slow productivity, and put traditional means of working under scrutiny. And while educators have long been supporters of curiosity, they have also fallen prey to similar criticism, both historically and in modern education.
Albert Einstein was a severe critic of education in his time, saying: “It is nothing short of a miracle that modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry.” Today, education doesn’t fare much better at the hand of critics — often classified as places where curiosity is not valued or even where it comes “to die.”
All news in this category
Declaration of the Asian Waldorf Youths
From all participants of the First Asian Waldorf Youths Conference at Panyotai Waldorf School, Bangkok, Thailand. [more]
Whither Waldorf?
Special issue about the future of Waldorf education. Translated for our english readers. [more]
Every cloud has a silver lining – the future of Steiner Schools in England
Many Steiner schools in England have come in for serious criticism of their practices in recent inspections by the schools inspectorate Ofsted.... [more]
Teheran: First International Congress on Education and Health
The University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences in Tehran organized a congress from 19 to 21 June 2018 with many contributions from... [more]
Hyderabad/India: Waldorf is booming
Waldorf Education is very popular in India – applications to the seven schools and more than 25 kindergartens are constantly increasing. No wonder. [more]
São Paolo: teacher training center becomes a university
The teacher training center in São Paolo has been around for 40 years. Many Brazilian Waldorf teachers are trained here (sometimes also teachers from... [more]
Domestic report: The Netherlands
The first Waldorf school was founded in 1923 in The Hague. Amsterdam and Zeist followed in 1933. In the 1970s there was a strong growth in the number... [more]
Domestic report: Italy
While the number and distribution of Waldorf Steiner schools and kindergartens in Italy has not changed noticeably in the last years, there has been... [more]
Transforming Ownership to Create a Better Economy
Private ownership of companies drives our economic system but it has also created corporations that put profit above everything else, a divided... [more]
Why write? Penmanship for the 21st Century
What is the future of writing in the digital age, and why does it matter? In this surprising talk, Master Penman Jake Weidmann explores the... [more]
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