We’re only human

OVER recent decades, research has revealed young children have an innate curiosity based on wonder, imagination and thought in the discovery of the world around them

Inexplicably, it is believed this natural curiosity is consequently crushed so that on entering school, it needs to be instilled once more, as the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority wants to achieve. (“Teach kids how to think, not what to think,” Bella D’Abrera, Opinion, Sept 21).

If youngsters are born with a capacity to think, maybe it is parents as well as teachers who must encourage this natural disposition, instead of chastising the curious because they can’t answer their questions.

Early experiences in the home need as much emphasis as schools to recognise that thinking is not a 21st century skill but as old as human existence. Otherwise we would still be using stone tools and living in grass houses.