This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The people of Utah seem to be satisfied with a school system that is average or "common" in nearly every way. In a recent study, carried out by the Economist Intelligence Unit, the U.S. was ranked 17th in an assessment of education systems of 50 countries. It is well known that Utah ranks last of the states in funding and somewhat better in performance. Are we satisfied to be near the bottom of states in a country that ranks only 17th in the world? Why not aim to be first?
A growing number of people are blaming our mediocre school system on the U.S. Department of Education for imposing a "common core curriculum" and holding each state hostage with funding.
Why does the 10th Amendment leave education as a responsibility of the states? The framers of this amendment must have had a premonition about the creative potential of leaving education in the hands of ordinary people — even of leaving it in the minds of students. What would happen if each student were free, with guidance from parents and teachers, to design his or her own education?
What would happen if our system of public education was committed to helping students increase their curious natures and find answers to their own questions? We can get some clues from Kristine Barnett, who went against what experts were telling her to teach and do with her autistic son. Instead, she decided to watch Jake and feed his curiosity and interests.
Jacob Barnett, at 16 years of age, is now working on his doctorate in physics and is being touted as a candidate for a Nobel Prize. What happened to Jake may be an example of what can happen to students in public education — if we help them increase their innate curiosity, learn how to ask vital questions and learn how to look for answers. It will take the lid off of learning.
Subject standards place "lids" or limits on the knowledge that is awaiting discovery in many fields. Because Jake was not limited with a set of standards, he has opened new avenues for physicists to explore. This can happen to many students if we make curiosity and the opportunity to ask questions a major purpose of public education.
There are some question-starting words, such as "who," "what," "why," "when" and "where," that students can use to develop questioning power. These words are advocated by Marion Brady in "What's Worth Learning?" These and at least 17 other question-starting words are part of the "educating for greatness" work that started in two elementary schools in northern Utah a few years ago. Students can be challenged to choose a topic and see how many questions they can ask with question-starting words.
A close companion of curiosity is creativity. It is the power of imagination that helps students think of questions to ask. For this reason we should add creativity to our list of human standards to develop in students. Doing so will also hasten the much needed shift from a subject-centered system of public education to a student-centered one.
Will we be able to assess student growth in curiosity and creativity? It is not only possible to evaluate questioning power by the quantity of questions students ask, but we will also be able to make a fair assessment as to the quality of the questions.
If we really want to elevate Utah schools to be the best in the world, we can begin by adopting curiosity and creativity (inquiry and imagination) as major goals.
Lynn Stoddard retired after 36 years to teach about "Educating for Human Greatness," that was started by teachers in two schools where he served as principal. EfHG now serves as a framework for redesigning public education in a growing number of schools.