Summer break: Ask questions you don’t know the answers to…and bring them to school

Read a book because you want to, not because you have to; be intentional about being with your friends; waste some time on something beautiful—and my final recommendation for summer is to ask some questions you don’t know the answers to.  In short, spend some time just wondering about things.

Rudyard Kipling said it well:

I keep six honest serving-men
  (They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
  And How and Where and Who.
I send them over land and sea,
  I send them east and west;
But after they have worked for me,
  I give them all a rest.

I let them rest from nine till five,
  For I am busy then,
As well as breakfast, lunch, and tea,
  For they are hungry men.
But different folk have different views;
  I know a person small
She keeps ten million serving-men,
  Who get no rest at all!
She sends em abroad on her own affairs,
  From the second she opens her eyes
One million Hows, Two million Wheres,
  And seven million Whys!

How is that possible?  Why are things one way and not another?  Who is responsible for this?  You don’t need to aim for 10 million; six honest-serving men will do.  Just remember, as John Locke said, “There is frequently more to be learned from the unexpected questions of a child than the discourses of men.” 

I hope you have a wonderful, and wonder-filled, summer—come back in August with more questions than answers. 

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