The Power of Wonder, by Peter W. Cookson, Jr.

Are you encouraging your students to be creative and curious about their world?

Follow me on a little imaginative journey: you and I have invented the wondermeter – a special device that captures bold ideas and original insights. Each idea and insight is measured as one wonderbit. By attaching the wondermeter to the mind of every child in your classroom, we're able to measure the daily wonder production of your students. As it turns out, on average, each of your students has three bold ideas and original insights a day. Assuming that you have 28 students in your class, the daily wonder production of your classroom is 84 bold ideas and original insights. And that doesn't even count the amount of wonder that you generate each day.

Bring on the blue cows
One little girl in your class, for instance, is able to imagine that cows really can be blue. And who is to tell her that they cannot? In the world of genetic engineering we might some day have blue cows. There have been more new ideas in the last idea than in the previous 600 years. Every intellectual and creative breakthrough that we experience comes out of the minds of people either working alone or working in groups. Somehow schools manage to squash this creativity with alarming regularity.

Seizing the creative moment
We should seize those creative moments when our students are creating wonder and generating intellectual energy. The question "why?" is the most important educational question we can ask. One way of making sure children begin to ask "why?" with regularity is to develop their writing skills. Each day, children should write in their journals or engage in a writing exercise that allows them to express their feelings.

Much of educational reform today is anti-wonder. It equates education with test scores and externally imposed standards. There's nothing wrong in principle with testing, but testing alone is a poor device for measuring natural genius and can actually inhibit children from imaginative creativity.

As a new teacher, you have a fundamental ethical choice. Are you reproducing a culture where wonder is not encouraged or do you see teaching as an intervention in the lives of children and in society where the capacity to think is the foundation for good citizenship and creative problem solving? My hope is that together we'll learn to celebrate wonder and create classrooms and schools where the natural genius of children is cherished, supported and rewarded.

Peter W. Cookson, Jr. is the founder of TCinnovations and the Dean of the Graduate School of Education of Lewis & Clark College. He is also founder of the Center for Educational Outreach & Innovation at Teachers College.