Children's Media - Inquiry

Because children essentially have tabula rasa when entering this world, children tend to have a natural state of curiosity. Kids explore as a natural means to learn about their surroundings. Besides just exploring eventually kids learn how to inquire through questions and these questions are often answered by the adults in their life such as parents, older children, and/or teachers. The documentary film To Be and to Have, specifically focuses on the inquiry which occurs in a one school classroom in rural France between the teacher Mr. Lopez and his students. I particularly love the manner in which the filmmakers chose to include various interactions in which Mr. Lopez uses inquiry to facilitate and answer the children's natural inquiry. For example, Mr. Lopez asks questions about if they have eaten yet to little Jojo as a means to help Jojo learn how to deduce if it is morning or afternoon. Also, another example in which Mr. Lopez asks questions to further Jojo's curiosity is by asking Jojo questions about counting since Jojo and deducted that one could count forever. These moments are great examples of how questions tend to inspire more questions and that sometimes answers my be questions within themselves.

It is also interesting to observe that the interactions between teacher and student are primarily constructed from questions. And not just questions from the students but questions from the teacher, Mr. Lopez. Mr. Lopez uses questions to try and convey deeper meaning to the students as a means to help them understand and learn. For example, when a student pushed another student in the yard Mr. Lopez was very concerned as to why the student pushed the other student. He posed questions more than lecturing or chastening. Mr. Lopez tried to facilitate curiosity by posing questions as opposed to purely stating facts. Which is an interesting balance to observe in contrast to educators who solely inform. For example, the Homefun films, Powers of Ten and Mr. Roger's How to Make Things: Crayons, the information in dictated to the viewer. This manner of dictation is very informative but doesn't necessarily prompt further questions. It is more reflective of what is considered 'traditional education'; education in which a teacher informs the student how things are. However, does this lack of inquiry in answering inquiry actually weaken inquiry in the inquirer? Albert Einstein stated: "It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education". Therefore, does this mean that the dictated content common to educational children's media like Powers of Ten is actually leading to killing inquiry because it merely answers questions and doesn't ask any? Therefore, should children's media which strives to fuel inquiry, actually need to fuel more inquiry by also asking questions instead of purely stating facts? And does simple stating facts actually kill inquiry?