by Gilda Bonanno LLC http://www.gildabonanno.com/
Recently, I was in Rome, Italy, teaching a career development program for a corporate client there. On the first morning of the training program, participants introduce themselves and answer the question, "Why are you excited to be here?"
One of the participants from Belgium responded:
"I'm excited to be here because I want to learn more about myself and the business. My five-year-old son just started school and I'm amazed at how much he learns every day. I have committed to trying to learn like him – every day."
It was an inspiring comment at the start of a training program and a great reminder for facilitators and participants that our capacity for learning is vast and for most of us, underutilized.
Children learn in many ways, including by asking questions. They are naturally curious and are not afraid of looking silly, so they ask numerous questions every day, often to the chagrin of their parents and teachers, who don't always know how to answer: "Why did my dog Rover die?" "If God created everything, then who created God?" "Why does a ball bounce but not an egg?"
Somewhere along the way, in the process of getting educated and growing up, children learn to stop asking questions and stop being curious. They learn that asking questions is a sign of weakness and makes you look bad because you don't know the answer.
So we can try to reverse that process and decide to be like children today, by asking more questions, being curious about the world and opening our minds to the possibilities for learning that are all around us.
Gilda Bonanno's blog www.gildabonanno.blogspot.com
Recently, I was in Rome, Italy, teaching a career development program for a corporate client there. On the first morning of the training program, participants introduce themselves and answer the question, "Why are you excited to be here?"
One of the participants from Belgium responded:
"I'm excited to be here because I want to learn more about myself and the business. My five-year-old son just started school and I'm amazed at how much he learns every day. I have committed to trying to learn like him – every day."
Children learn in many ways, including by asking questions. They are naturally curious and are not afraid of looking silly, so they ask numerous questions every day, often to the chagrin of their parents and teachers, who don't always know how to answer: "Why did my dog Rover die?" "If God created everything, then who created God?" "Why does a ball bounce but not an egg?"
Somewhere along the way, in the process of getting educated and growing up, children learn to stop asking questions and stop being curious. They learn that asking questions is a sign of weakness and makes you look bad because you don't know the answer.
So we can try to reverse that process and decide to be like children today, by asking more questions, being curious about the world and opening our minds to the possibilities for learning that are all around us.
Gilda Bonanno's blog www.gildabonanno.blogspot.com