COLUMN: Students need to embrace their curiosity
“I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity,” Eleanor Roosevelt said.
I’d like to be that fairy godmother.
If there’s just one thing I’d like to see everyone exhibit a bit more, it’s curiosity. I don’t mean being curious about the new Lady Gaga outfit (although we might need an engineer to explain how she keeps it on), but being curious about what’s going on in the world around you, related to and not so related to your major.
Everyone here wants to be a success. As I see it, the fast track to that laudable goal is to start asking questions, letting those questions lead to more questions, and reading a daily newspaper – getting involved with Honors doesn’t hurt, either. I honestly don’t think that you can find success in your career without knowing what is going on in the world. And I especially don’t think that you can be a contributing member of a democracy without a daily news source. Although I said “newspaper” I don’t think that you have to actually read a broadsheet and get newsprint on your hands every day – although The New York Times is on sale in the HASS Dean’s office for only a quarter – but I do think it’s incumbent upon us to keep up with the world. Doesn’t affect me, you say?
Our top 10 majors include education, economics, mechanical engineering, psychology, biology, English and communicative disorders/deaf education. What is happening in the world profoundly affects each of these majors. How can you be a good teacher if you aren’t aware of what’s happening regarding education in the state and nationally? Econ major? I’d like to see every economics major not only be able to speak about the mortgage crisis, but take a position on how to fix the economy – same goes for other business majors. Biology major? The state of the economy affects how much tax revenue we collect; tax revenue affects the coffers of the National Science Foundation; USU applies for and gets more than $136 million in research funding each year – a good percentage of which comes from the NSF. I didn’t even mention the debates over what government funds may be used for, such as stem cells. English majors – at the very least – should know what’s happening in the world of publishing and should be reading books (books!) that have recently been published, and the book review pages of a national newspaper are a great place to start.
To me, being curious is about stretching yourself and learning something that makes you feel uncomfortable – at least at first. That might mean taking classes outside your major, or it might mean delving further into your major by participating in Honors and/or Undergraduate Research – in fact, we’re celebrating Undergraduate Research nationally today: look in your colleges for examples.
Of more than 3,000 undergraduate degrees conferred last year, only 14 percent of them were bachelor of arts degrees, indicating that the recipient had achieved at least four semesters of a second language. Yes, English is often the language of commerce. Learning a second language is not just about being able to conduct business in Spanish or Mandarin – although that, too, is important – but it’s about making a connection with someone who is different from you; forging new connections in your brain as you learn expressions of emotion and thought that are untranslatable. How fantastic is that – to learn to express an emotion you’ve always had but never had the words for in another language. “No tengo ganas” is one of my favorite examples. You can look up the English translation, but it doesn’t quite capture the full meaning in Spanish. “Je ne sais quoi” is a great French example. When you learn another language, you can’t help becoming curious about the cultures that speak it. You might even have the opportunity to study abroad to see the culture for yourself. You’ll never have this chance again: jump on it.
So, yes, I want you to read the paper and to know what’s going on in the world around you, to come to understand why the Haitian earthquake makes a difference in your life. College is the ideal place to start this habit of mind, as you have a bevy of experts around you to help explain the connections and history of the stories you don’t quite understand. Oh, and here’s another tip: a lot of the real news is hidden in the business pages. Don’t skip them.
I don’t believe that curiosity killed the cat, but if it did, as arts activist Arnold Edinborough said, the cat died nobly.
Christie Fox is the director of the honors program at USU.