The WHY Question

Children, from about the time they learn to talk until we beat it out of them, ask a lot of why questions. It gets frustrating to answer these questions when we don’t really know the answer. Sometimes we just accept things as they are or find it too hard to think about. We are busy. There is no time….

“Why?” is an important question to keep in mind. Sometimes we don’t ask it when we should. The “why” of things is how we approach science. We do observations and experiments to try to discover why. There isn’t always someone to ask. Even when there is someone to ask, we don’t always get the correct answer. One further step we need to make after “why” is supposedly answered is “does that make sense?”

Most children don’t accept an answer until it makes sense to them. As adults we have been weaned from that next step or are just too lazy to think about it. The problem with this is that we too easily accept what we are told and too often get fooled because of it. It is work. It is harder to have to question and figure things out.

Just giving answers to children’s “why?” questions might satisfy the question, but do they learn from it? Not everything can be easily tested or demonstrated, but much can, and doing and seeing for ones self can not only deepen the understanding, but also lead to understanding or discovery of what otherwise would be a future “why?” question.

Our schools are contributing to the demise of questioning and creative thinking. There is a lot to learn and little time to learn it. Children are not allowed time to investigate on their own. They are encouraged to memorize rather than learn. What is worse is that children don’t do much of this on their own either. TV and computers, especially with internet access, can be a great resource, but too often is the only resource. Working along side of a parent or other adult to see how things are done, or out exploring, or taking things apart to see how they work (and putting them together again) are just not done very much anymore.

Now on, ask yourself about everything – “why?”. Do you really know, or just accept things as “the way it is”? Does it matter? YES! A deeper understanding of “why?” can enrich your life in ways that you can not imagine.