Emma Corwin-January Blogpost
Invasive curiosity attaches judgement to questioning. I think when we are curious about someone or something and are receptive to whatever the answer may be (non-judgmental) then we are simply curious. Curiosity is a necessary function of a classroom (of life!)– we ask questions to learn more. It can feel invasive when you ask a question that you believe you already know the answer to. For example, “Where are you from?”, but you already think you know the answer is “not from here.”
In the classroom I think we can foster healthy curiosity by asking lots of questions about everything; we can show that there are many ways to seek answers, whether that be from an expert, books, research, or personal experience. In my classroom (and I’m sure yours, too!), we talk a lot about thinking about what we’re going to say before saying it and before the comment or question comes out we ask ourselves, “will this be hurtful or helpful?” We can also practice empathy by listening to someone’s words or reading their facial expressions or body language to see if they were okay with our question or comment.
When I think about the age group I work with (1st and 2nd graders!), this is tough to answer because they are often asking what would be perceived as an invasive question to adults. “How old are you?” “Why don’t you have kids?” “What would you be like if you were my mom?” “Are you married?” I personally don’t mind these questions, so I just answer (maybe not the mom one, haha). Am I doing them a disservice? Should I say, “I am 29 years old, but just so you know some people don’t like to be asked their age?” (They would be shocked as age is so very important to them). What I try to do, rather than correct, is give everyone plenty of opportunities to share about themselves with guided structure. My hope for the listener is that, through experience, they will see what other kids/people generally like to share about themselves and what they might keep to themselves. Finally, I offer to students that they can “pass” on questions– you never have to answer something you don’t want to. I am now reflecting that after sharing, it might be wise as a teacher to “think aloud” (comment) something like, “Wow! I’m noticing that most of you like to share about the things and people you love and your personal stories. Most people love to share about those things.”
Something I would like to start doing is analyzing character decision making in stories. We make a lot of predictions about what might happen, but I think it would be helpful to get students into the mindset of the character and consider what choices they have and then predict what they will do. After we should take note of the consequences of their choice and then discuss if we liked this outcome– in other words, would we make the same decision again knowing the consequences.
