Questions Worth Asking with Children

“During our days with children, when should we speak and what should we say? What principles can guide us, as we embark on a journey into conversation with a child?” Ann Pelo asks this question in the article at the core of the newest Exchange Reflections, “Finding the Questions Worth Asking.” She continues, “As we cultivate the skill of asking good questions, we ought to practice being quiet, developing an ease with not-talking. Good questions are born in silence. They begin with the humility of listening.”

With a beautiful story of children’s musings on why leaves change colors, Pelo goes on to challenge the view of children as concrete thinkers. “The common wisdom is that young children can’t think abstractly, that meaningful metaphor is beyond their reach. But children often communicate in metaphorical language.” This is born out both by their pretend play, as a stick becomes a wand, and by the acquisition of language itself, both of which rely on symbolic thinking.

The Exchange Reflections for this article includes the invitation to grapple with Pelo’s assertion, “Our goal is not that a child learns the facts, or arrives at the ‘proper’ answers, but that she becomes a nimble and reflective thinker, a person with big ideas and with the capacity to analyze those ideas through critical and imaginative reflection.”

Ann Pelo is a founding convener of the ROW Initiative, open to all.

We’d love to hear your thoughts about Pelo’s ideas, and what you encounter when you are alert to questions worth asking. Please comment below!

For more information about Exchange's magazine, books, and other products pertaining to ECE, go to www.ccie.com.

© 2005 Child Care Information Exchange - All Rights Reserved | Contact Us | Return to Site