Works in Progress/Future Posts

• Setting aside time to ask questions: On the necessity to allow and encourage inquiry in schools.
• Journal Entry:  I noticed that at my son's kindergarten, children are not encouraged to ask questions.  When they raise their hands, the teacher fails to acknowledge their raised hand, or they say "not now."  Although I understand that there is a structure or a busy itinerary in the class that must be met for the students to excel, I wonder whether we should dedicate a small amount of time for the kids to ask questions.
• The essay will explore the act of asking a question for children.  How do children ask questions?  What do they expect from the question?  How should be engage the attempt?  The question?  I argue that allowing to ask questions raise many positive aspects of a child's development.
• What's your favorite?: On the unnecessary fomenting of a static state-of-being.
• Journal Entry:  My son is undergoing a project where he needs to present to the class his favorite bear.  This project encourages students to speak in class and share their thoughts.  Although I like the fact that children are encouraged to speak in class, I am not to fond of forcing kids to pick a favorite.  There are many situations where educators ask the student to share what their favorite something or other is.  I wonder why it is necessary to ask such a question.  I fear that as one asks a child to pick a favorite, one is forcing a child to select and defend a whimsical fancy that now has a potential to be fomented as an integral part of the child's being.  Why do we encourage children to narrow their realm of possibilities to get behind a "favorite?"
• The essay will present how picking favorites can hinder the development of children by narrowing their realm of possibilities.
• Future Book Review:  The Philosophical Baby by Alison Gopnik.
• Future Book Review:  Meta-Thinking Children: Or should children do philosophy in schools?  by Kevin William Molin.