What do you ask your child after school? ‘What did you learn today?’ Or quite simply ‘How was your day?’
Isidor Rabi, Nobel laureate in Physics, offers us a compelling alternative. He recalled: ‘My mother made me a scientist without ever knowing it. Every other child would come back from school and be asked, “What did you learn today?” But my mother used to say, “Izzy, did you ask a good question today?” That made the difference. Asking good questions made me into a scientist.’
At ELC, we encourage children to question. The practice of thoughtful and considered questioning is a critical learning skill and enables children to explore their ideas, their underlying assumptions or beliefs, and serves as an inspiration to develop dialogue and debate with one another. Questions bring us together. We invite parents to deepen their child’s learning journey at home by looking for the questions your child may have, not only their answers!
On UN Earth Day this week, our Head of The City School, Dr. Lea, and our Y1-2 Project Coordinator, Ms. Sam, presented a webinar to the international educational and development community entitled ‘Co-Constructing a Climate-Resilient Future: Putting Our Trust in the Children’, with a participating audience of professionals from Bangladesh to Ethiopia, Nepal to the US. Hosted by the Asia-Pacific Regional Network for Early Childhood, and in collaboration with Save the Children, our educators showcased how ELC’s The City School is committed to empowering children to prepare for climate resilience and work for sustainable development, and how our Reggio Emilia approach to education cultivates those skills and character for our children to be world-changers.
