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Salim Solaiman

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Why kids lose curiosity in the process of growing up?

Kids are more curious than we adults are. They ask lot of questions which we adult don't and it's is a sign of curiosity. They also try lot of things that we don't. Now why they lose it over time as they grow. Is it a learnt behavior that they learn from "Don't Ask", "Don't Do" phenomenon around them & taking things as granted. Or some neurological changes really happens in the process of growing up?
By stopping asking question or trying new things do we get smarter/wiser or we get dumber ?

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Closing Statement from Salim Solaiman

Thanks to all TED members for thier valued contribution and thoughts. There were lot more points on societal reason to be the killer of curiosity but we can't disagree there is biology behind it as well. Good news is that both can be taken care of to keep our future generation curious for longer period and hence supporting to be more creative to solve the challenge of future.

Enjoyed and learnt from you all !!!

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  • Lukas Müller

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    Mar 31 2011: I would argue that besides parents turning kids' questions down (maybe because they don't have the energy to answer them, or just because they feel insecure not to be able to know and answer every question of their children) and not holding education up as a high value, I believe that school does too seldom allow children to follow their own curiosity, if there is any left once they get there.

    In a perfect school, children would come up with the questions and answers themselves through curious play. But how do you do that, and is it possible in every subject? How much stuff would children break in physics? Possibly hurt themselves while experimenting? How is it possible to condense the knowledge of centuries in a guided lecture that on the other hand gives children enough autonomy to come up with the questions and answers themselves? I don't know, but I believe that we will see some improvements in this through virtual reality in a distant future. But until then, we can begin with open school and education projects on the net, like they already exist in the form of the Khan Academy, of recorded lectures from top universities on the net, or just like TED or Wikipedia. But it seems the interconnections are still missing. What we have are only different types of web-sites, but no web-nets or web-connections.

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