How to Cultivate Curiosity and Stop Stupidity (Part 1)

April 30, 2018 / Oskar Cymerman

Cultivating Curiosity and Stopping Stupidity

“Oh My Gosh! Look at this puppy. That’s so cute.”

— A male student in my 2nd-hour chemistry

Curiosity is a choice. So is ignorance. Thus, the only person who can make you stupid is yourself. Not your parents. Not your school. Not your friends. You.

Consider how easy it is to pick up a digital device and spend an hour watching car crash or cat videos. It's one thing to watch one cat video while taking a break from doing something meaningful. It's quite another to get sucked in. Crazy and cute appeal to the human brain, but don't always help it learn. Enjoying the neurochemicals our brain releases it's easy to spend mindless hours on self-entertainment forgoing self-education in the process. It takes mindfulness and self-control to do the opposite.

The Rise of the Digikid

It doesn't take much for an adult to get sucked into virtual nonsense but many of today's kids practically live on YouTube or Snapchat or in the virtual world of video games and other digital media. Fully developed prefrontal cortex and all, adults can reflect on the mind-numbing activities they partake in more often. The kids? Not so much. Johnny just spent 6 hours playing Fortnite after school and lost track of time. He's so hopped up on adrenaline that he's considering skipping sleep to study for that chem test tomorrow. His teenage PFC is like: Fuck it! I'll sleep when I'm six feet under.

Studies on the kids' use of digital devices and media are all over the place but the trends are clear. Every year, more kids are using digital devices and on average, they spend more of their time in the digital realm of the Internet. They are the digikids.

The Incurious Ones

All teachers and parents know the internet can be a blessing and a curse. Ian Leslie who wrote Curious: The Desire to Know and Why Your Future Depends on It claims internet usage can further widen the divide between those who want to learn, the curious ones, and those who are unmotivated to do so, the incurious ones.

This is because the incurious students choose to spend most of their online time seeking entertainment. As a result, they consume content that adds little value to their personal growth. Much of their plugged-in time is spent aimlessly pursuing and learning about vain things. They don't acquire knowledge and skills that better their lives because their curiosity muscles have atrophied.

The Curious Ones

These students keep asking questions way past their preschool years. Unreal, I know. They never stopped asking questions. Hopefully, they never will. These individuals are like that annoying 3-year-old in the back seat of your family sedan - the more questions you answer - the more they ask. The more they discover, the farther and deeper they want to explore. Embrace them. Even if their chutzpa makes you a little uncomfortable trust in this: They're not the annoying ones. They're just curious.

They use the world wide web to learn and dig deeper. They google something, then watch a video on it, then come running to you to discuss the things that intrigued them and to ask about concepts that elude them. They are the curious ones and they will save the world. So for world's sake: Let them! Embrace their curiosity or you might contribute to soul death.

Why Giving Up Curiosity Is Soul Suicide

Stagnation, the feeling of being stuck in a profession you're blah about, and the eventual resignation all result from abandoning our curiosity which diminishes our motivation and creativity. And though things we can't control happen to us all the time, it is ultimately us who give up our curiosity. This is soul suicide. We end up living a life filled with regrets about what we didn't do and excuses for why we didn't do it. Accepting that this is the way it's supposed to be is frequently an unconscious decision resulting from conditioning, becoming aware of it might be all that's needed to start reversing this conditioning. Of course, one has to act on this newfound realization because change comes from doing not design.

Awareness and Reawakening Curiosity

Luckily, curiosity doesn't die. Becoming incurious at different points in my life I eventually broke the pattern each time. Instead of disappearing completely, curiosity lies dormant, buried underneath a thick layer of apathy. But it can always be uncovered and reawakened; sometimes stimulated by a new interest; at other times induced by the shocks of life.

To be able to help reawaken the innate curiosity every human is born with it's helpful to look at reasons and circumstances that often lead to loss of motivation and apathy. This creates awareness that allows you to prevent incuriosity when children are young and work to counteract its effects in older kids or adults.

While poverty is often blamed for educational and professional success divide, it's important to note that many kids grow up impoverished in more ways than one. They might grow up in an environment that doesn't validate and support their curiosity. Their questions are brushed aside by well-meaning but busy parents. Their explorations and pursuits are first suppressed by parents and later annihilated by society's norms.

In today's technology-infused world kids exposure to this very world is different. We can substitute real experiences with virtual ones. But how does this affect curiosity? The internet can be used to learn but it's just so damn easy to pick up a device and continue clicking through the digital world of cute puppies, furry cats, and sneezing pandas that freak themselves out. How many kids instead of going camping and seeing that Peppa the Pig theater play or participating in dance or STEM classes grow up in front of the modern age pacifiers; the brain numbness-inducing TVs and iPads?

TVs have been around for more than half a century and every teacher has encountered students hooked on the tube. The effect was apparent. They didn't do the homework, complete the projects, study the concepts, learn the material, or pass the class. This is amplified today. As early as toddlerhood more and more kids are conditioned to live a life of media consumption. While this keeps them from bouncing off the walls it turns them into vegetables; organisms that don't take control of their life but rather let life happen to them. And no offense but as useful as plants are they're about as smart as the dirt they grow in.

I cannot know the exact childhood story of each teenager I encounter in my classroom but I see the effects of incuriosity every day and they are startling. Unless students are taught and shown how to use their smartphones for learning their first inclination is to use them for entertainment. Consumption of video, audio, and imagery via apps and social media is conditioned. With technology, fun became easy, no assembly required. But the kids of the past had much less access to instant gratification devices so dopamine had to be earned with curiosity and made with creativity.

Luckily, this is still possible today. We can choose to turn the devices off and go play with our kids in the real. The more exposure to things other than devices they have the higher the chance they will remain curious about everything the world is made of and life offers.

Don't Just Tell Them. Do It with Them.

It is up to us, the adults in their lives to do it. But we can't be punitive. We can't just take the devices away from kids and force them to read. We can't be passive either. We can't just tell the kids to do something else. Rather, we have to get involved in their lives more and find the time to experience life with them.

We need to get interested in the whys so we can find new and more meaningful hows. If we know the specific reasons for why our kids like a certain app or game or whatever, we can find new more creative ways of channeling that energy. Then, we can perhaps provide more productive alternatives to spending mindless hours doing one particular thing.

We can figure out ways to involve the gamer kids in creating content related to the games they play. How about starting a YouTube channel or a podcast giving game tips or reviewing games? How about a website that aggregates all the cool trends and pop culture things teens are into or focuses on one topic such as music, gaming, clothing, shoes, gear, or teen life hacks? We can watch TED talks they might enjoy with them and discuss them afterward or make our own video that addresses this or similar topic and put it on YouTube. We can agree to learn how to write apps with them and write an app with them. We can take them downtown and ask them to use their phone to navigate. We can take them camping and teach them how to gather wood and start a fire without lighter fluid. We can take a walk to the local park or hang out in the grassy area by the school building and make a map or draw different kinds of plants and bugs.

We can do many things with them. We can't just tell them to go do something.

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Hi! I'm Oskar.

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categories / Life Reflections
tags / teaching teens, deeper learning, learning, teaching, curiosity, cultivating curiosity, stopping stupidity

Why We Need to Teach Kids the "What’s Next?" Mindset

April 15, 2018 / Oskar Cymerman

Photo by Jeff Sheldon on Unsplash — Photo by Jeff Sheldon on Unsplash

The Internet is the single most disruptive and creative force in the history of human kind. It changed our lives. While not the only things, digital products are things we buy now. Product consumption is undergoing a revolution. The nature of work will never be the same. The middle men are constantly being cut out. The innovation in how various services are provided has had an even greater impact on global society and economy.

Google is 19 years old and it's difficult to imagine life without it. 14-year old Facebook analyzes your behavior to provide you with a catered online experience. Amazon was formed 23 years ago and Apple has been around since 1976. There aren't many people in the world unaware of the Big 4.

And how about a few game-changing squirts who have yet to reach the ripe age of 10? 8-year-old Uber is valued at $40-70 billion. I recently rented a cabin in Wisconsin using the 9-year-old $30-billion hotel industry disruptor Airbnb. And even though it was acquired in its 5th year of existence by Unilever in 2016 for a cool billion, I still use the Dollar Shave Club razors to keep my melon clean and shiny.

Those are the heavy hitters many of us know but there are many other innovative companies and start-ups that have been changing the way business is done around the world. Some are being formed right now as I'm typing and as you're reading. At the same time the old guard is being replaced or is shaking in its boots as jobs and trends of yesteryear are disappearing.

The wiser elders are adopting. They are buying out and hiring the new blood, the creative competition, with hopes of using their mojo to stay relevant. It's not a mere transfusion. It's an infusion. They are acquiring the fountain of youth because times are a changin'.

Change Is the Only Constant

It's true. I wish I said it first but I can't take credit no matter how smart I want to seem. But there's more to it. Change is not just constantly happening. It's happening faster than ever before. It's speeding up. There are more changes too. This is today, not some distant future.

So why is it that school isn't adopting to the trends of the times? The digital revolution in the industry and daily life is not replicated in school. While use of technology in education is increasing the what of teaching is the same. It can be argued that the how of teaching is barely changing too. Hopefully initiatives such as project-based learning and genius hour follow the 80/20 principle and provide 80% of academic results as they are used only 20% of the time (or less) in most schools. But this begs at least a few questions: Are we wasting the other 80% of our kids' time learning useless things? and Are the concepts we teach using 20% time useful to our kids or just repackaged same old?

Parents and educators should be alarmed that schools rarely teach their kids how to find opportunities present in today's marketplace. For example, the business class in my high school teaches how to start a restaurant or retail business all the while the way most business is done today has already changed enough that it is far more transferrable to know how to create content, market, and make money online.

Change Brings Necessity & Opportunity

I know I have it backwards. Necessity Brings Change is the old, tried, and true cliche. I agree but think it's more of a cycle that's self-perpetuating. Just as a need for something calls for a change (a solution to a problem), the change itself will produce feedback we can use to improve that which already exists and feedback that allows us to see new needs. These needs will call for more changes. These changes will require... you get the point.

And no one knows exactly what the future will look like but we know it will be different. I, for one, believe that it will be necessary to continually anticipate the changes a person's industry might undergo to remain relevant or be able to adopt and learn new ways of doing things, new skills, and new knowledge quickly.

This isn't our grandparents' world. Job hopping is quickly becoming the new normal. Technology is always changing. Progress is accelerating. Reaction time is shortening. The answer lies in not just reacting to changes but anticipating them. Those who anticipate the changes and the needs will thrive. They won't just notice trends. They'll create them.

Remaining Relevant

Luckily, becoming a trendsetter is not a prerequisite of success. Remaining relevant is enough. As the very job and industry an individual is a part of changes she must become savvy at anticipating which way the progress is going and taking steps needed to keep up with it or stay ahead of it.

This requires a certain mindset. Resting on her laurels is no longer possible. After becoming qualified for a job in the first place, she will need to keep learning to stay qualified for the new version of the same job as it morphs into something perhaps diametrically different. As human demand and technology and everything else around that product or service keeps evolving, she will need to continue to learn to remain at the top of her game. Being good at something right now does not guarantee being adequate at it two years from now, because the technology and the understanding of this field will change drastically. This is the price of progress and our students will pay it if we don’t prepare them for it.

And it's not just about adopting to changes in professions. Anticipation of the brutal fact that his job might one day disappear prepares the individual for the fallout. Understanding and acceptance of this as status quo of future life will lead to constant drive to acquire relevant new knowledge and skills. Of course, knowing how to do it well i.e. having the right skills to acquire knowledge and skills will make or break an individual.

It's scary to think we are on the brink of a future in which just getting through school, getting a diploma, and getting a decent job will not be nearly enough. Just think about all of the kids you know who make it through the educational system without being able to read well enough or those who always wait for you to tell them what to do. If you care for them you must be weary. I know I am.

To bring this point home consider a situation in which you could no longer teach or do the job you're doing right now. Would you be anxious? Would it turn your world upside down? Would you be okay? What else can you do? What would you do?

Chances are you'd be stressed out. But chances also are that you know how to do many of the things I describe below and you'd be okay. Can the same be said of all your kids?

As jobs that require a lot of repetition and direction remain few, being able to learn effectively and efficiently, to problem solve, to generate new, innovative ideas, to test these ideas, and to keep doing it over and over will be a future necessity. No longer a bane of the scientists and philosophers, reinvention of self or the industry one works in will be paramount to remaining relevant. Otherwise, he or she will struggle to find employment or will be left performing one of the few remaining, mostly mundane and mindless jobs laws and regulations forbid automating.

Reinvention as a Skill

It goes without saying that a career that exists today might not exist tomorrow. But it’s perhaps more important to point out that schools still largely focus on preparing students for specific jobs; jobs that exist now. I don't know of any high school or college courses that embrace constant change and focus on teaching adaptation to it. However, courses and books that address this trend are produced by the industry thought leaders who experience it. One such book is Reinvent Yourself by James Altucher.

Altucher recognizes that being able to reinvent yourself requires certain thinking and behaviors. It's a skill that comprises of multiple micro skills one must acquire to be successful. There are real individuals who do it consistently and anyone can learn to do it.

And yet, education at large is stubbornly refusing to change and do the same. Why? Why not trust the people in the industry, the companies and the entrepreneurs who live and breathe this world of flux? Am I missing something here?!?!

And while it requires some know how, it's not that hard to teach the entrepreneurial mindset. Acquiring it will probably require letting go of a couple of centuries of academic and societal conditioning, but skills such as pattern recognition can be taught. In fact, being able to recognize patterns and predict trends is a competitive advantage as "future experts" claim it is one of the few things artificial intelligence has trouble doing. Turns out it's hard for robots to predict what humans want.

**Teaching the What’s Next? Mindset**

But humans can be trained to recognize patterns. Kids can be taught to analyze what innovators and entrepreneurs are doing in the fields they are interested in. They can study the thinking and the behaviors of past and present successful individuals. With practice, they can learn to identify the available opportunities and create their own.

Teaching the What's Next mindset will set our kids up for success. As schools begin to train students to have this outlook they will see the world for what it is - and really always has been - which is a world in constant flux, except now the change is faster than ever before. And it will get faster. This is why we need to do this. It’s no longer optional to leave it up to the scientists and thought leaders of the world to tell us what the changes will be.

We must show our students how to be the thought leaders and the pattern recognizes and the trendsetters themselves. We must encourage them to ask questions such as: What is impossible? Why is this impossible right now? What is stopping people from doing this? How can this become a possibility? How can I get involved in this? How can I innovate here? What does the future of this look like? What do people need now or might need soon? How can I be a player in these things?

These questions have one thing in common. We are not teaching our kids to ask them. We are not equipping them with the mindset and skills needed to look for answers to these questions either. Instead, we teach facts that live in books. But kids don't live in books. Past facts and characters do. Some are important. Some are outdated. Other things might be fictitious. But life is the realest thing there is.

Let's be real and teach real. Or else what’s the point?

You have the power to change lives. Use it often so they can change the world.

Thanks for reading! My hope is to inspire parents and educators to demand a better education for their kids. Consider signing up below to receive new teaching, learning, and skills-building articles and graphics as soon as I post them.