Head's Blog | Curious capacity | Embley School, Hampshire

Did curiosity really kill the cat? Over the course of the year, I interview hundreds of students. Recently I was interviewing a prospective student from Germany. As is often the case we talked about all sorts. The questioning was wide ranging and as is often the case, bemused parents look on glad they are not expected to contribute. The young person in question wanted to be a lawyer so we discussed where the law comes from, well why wouldn’t you? We pondered if law comes from the beliefs of the government and if those beliefs are not shared by me, am I justified in breaking the law? What is the limit of legality, or does it have a limit? Am I free to swing my fist beyond the reach of your nose? If government make laws as an expression of the will of the people are those who disagree being coerced, could the democratically elected government make a law that was unjust and by what standard is that measure of justice established? The conversation was entertaining and enlightening, the student claimed never to have thought about such questions before but enjoyed the unexpected opportunity. She exhibited a genuine curiosity, something that seemed to develop as the questions unfolded. Students are of course invited to ask me questions in return, although on advice of counsel I choose which ones I answer...ok not really but I couldn’t resist.

The student in question said she did have some things she wanted to put to me and promptly unfolded a series of sheets of paper. The first item tabled was “if there was only one quality I could look for in a candidate for Embley, what would it be?” Really interesting question, isn’t it? I wonder, reader, what your answer might be? In one sentence you are called to sum up what you stand for. Now I suppose you could look at this as a parlour game and certainly it is the case that the answer may change in any moment, but at that moment and in that context, I answered “curiosity”. 

The reasoning behind it is based on what it means to be curious. To be curious is, at the same time, to be open; to be thoughtful, to be considered. Maybe it is some, one or all of them and more besides. Maybe it is because as a child I was endlessly asking questions and wondering about the world that I hold it in such esteem. Let's think through some of the implications, oh and reader don't be shy about sending me your thinking on this, what would you answer? And why? It would be really interesting to see a variety of perspectives.

The openness of curiosity allows challenges to our perceived or inherited ways of doing things or understanding the world. It challenges received wisdom and accepted paradigms. Thomas Kuhn's appreciation of the claims science has on knowledge suggests that science advances in paradigm shifts which follow new discovery; exceptions to rules; where  'understanding' meets nature and nature redefines understanding. This openness flows out to the lives of others and seeks to understand difference rather than to judge it. Some judgements may of course follow as understanding is built, but it is not the first port of call on a voyage of discovery.

As well as the capacity to be open and to gather information, there is a development of the capacity to reason. To draw inference from the data observed or experienced. There is a thoughtfulness that invites the curious to map their new experience against their existing and to contrast; compare; synthesise and conclude before starting the process all over from a new vantage point. The curious have the capacity to observe, not just to look to the world and the things in it, but to really behold. This observation allows the subtlety of detail to be apprehended; it avoids the superficiality of the quick glance. In turn it invites questions; what are the stimuli behind the behaviour of flora and fauna? Beyond the empirical it may lead to the metaphysical and to questions of meaning and purpose. In finding that purpose we find our reason to be and our ultimate happiness.

Why is curiosity the quality I fastened on and with no hesitation at all? Probably nothing at all to do with felines and their life chances, it is the quality that allows us to open ourselves to wonder; to each other and to the best version of ourselves, it is however the capacity to be curious that allows us to Be.