Why Education Is Important

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Wonder-infused learning can engage students in inquiry, experimentation, and “joyful struggle.”

Teachers who share their own wonder can help students feel more comfortable expressing uncertainty.

Educational leaders can cultivate wonder through professional development and school culture.

In the past few weeks, three people involved in education have brought wonder in the classroom back to my attention. Angela Stockman is reconsidering her work in educational assessment and facilitation after reading the book Tracking Wonder. She wrote in her Substack recently,

"How might tracking wonder, rather than curiosity, offer richer rewards? How might it make it my documentation practice more meaningful? I’m not sure. But… a practice that slows us down enough to stay open, that gives our curiosity something real to work on, that treats bewilderment as a legitimate place to stand, that produces the evidence hope requires, that puts us in the company of colleagues, and that gives us a way to admire one another out loud and deepen the qualities we admire in our own selves? That seems like a profoundly rewarding practice that might help me find surprising answers. I think this is where documentation can begin to widen the aperture around what it means to be a teacher or a professional learning facilitator."

"How might tracking wonder, rather than curiosity, offer richer rewards? How might it make it my documentation practice more meaningful? I’m not sure. But… a practice that slows us down enough to stay open, that gives our curiosity something real to work on, that treats bewilderment as a legitimate place to stand, that produces the evidence hope requires, that puts us in the company of colleagues, and that gives us a way to admire one another out loud and deepen the qualities we admire in our own selves? That seems like a profoundly rewarding practice that might help me find surprising answers.

I think this is where documentation can begin to widen the aperture around what it means to be a teacher or a professional learning facilitator."

Another person is seeking a Doctorate of Education (EdD) and is directly involved with a university center that provides educators with professional development. Her EdD focus? Wonder. A third serves on a board of education and a teaching and learning committee as educators and school leaders in her state reconsider their priorities and how they assess learning. Their questions have me wondering about education itself and about educators.

Consider this post a timely update from "The Creative State of the Union: 6 Bold, Wonder-Centered Ideas for Obama’s Education Initiative," which I wrote in response to fellow wonder-tracker and psychologist Todd Kashdan’s post from 2011, "3 Ideas to Prevent Schools from Killing Creativity, Curiosity, and Critical Thinking."

My questions now: What would happen if we placed wonder closer to the center of education? And what........

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