In a world awash in access to more information than at any time in the history of mankind I am at times flabbergasted at how often we surrender our curious and inquisitive nature to  convenience and sound bites. 

Why don’t we explore? Why don’t we challenge? Why don’t we seek a breadth of perspective before charting our course?

Did you know? The world’s largest library, The Library of Congress and all of the information it contains is available to anyone on line. And one of the oldest libraries on earth, founded by Queen Elizabeth I in 1592 offers access to 7,000,000 volumes and 200,000 books including The Book of Kells with a simple click on Trinity College Dublin.

"Sometimes I am a little unkind to all my many friends in education ... by saying that from the time it learns to talk, every child makes a dreadful nuisance of itself by asking 'Why?'. To stop this nuisance society has invented a marvellous system called education which, for the majority of people, brings to an end their desire to ask that question.” ~ Sir Hermann Bondi

At our school we make every effort possible to encourage our students to ask ‘Why’ whenever they are challenged with a piece of learning or a new experience. Further, we embrace an approach to education that oftentimes begins with ‘Why not’.

And, beyond my role as an educator I think I have a responsibility to discover alternative approaches to improving the world we live in.

When we launched our Guide to Making A Better World With Kids I was challenged with some people questioning why a school such as ours would undertake a project of such broad scope.

My response is really simple: Why not?

We care deeply about making a better world and if we have the inspiration and ability to influence even a few families to take action we will move forward.   We all - parents, teachers, staff, students - have an obligation to give back. We all have a responsibility to make small, incremental change at a grassroots level to explore the realities of our history, to learn and to continuously explore methods to implement forward movement even if just in our neighbourhoods.

So what’s this all mean for you?

I have a simple request: the next time your child challenges you with a ‘why’, stop and consider the question. Take a moment to absorb the curiosity that compelled your kid to ask then engage with a response of ‘let’s explore this together’.

Obviously if the question is ‘why can’t I jump off the roof into this pile of leaves?’, your answer can be pretty direct!

However, let’s imagine that they ask you ‘why were so many native kids taken away from their parents’ your opportunity is tremendous and I’d ask you to set aside the time to investigate, engage and learn.

It’s what we’ll be doing every day at Walden and it’s just one more way we can all make a better world with our kids.