Exploring+the+Questions


 * **Exploring the Questions**

We live in a world that thrives on and values **answers**. Our formal school systems often promote the idea that success has to do with "getting the right answers." We are rewarded for arriving at the right answer; we are penalized for getting the wrong answer.

While there are many times when answers are very desirable and important to have, they tend to end discussions rather than open them up and deepen them.

The art of thoughtful and reflective questioning is part of what philosophical inquiry is all about. It's what this CoP is all about. Join us as we tackle some of the big questions of life.

The questions posed here will ideally be open-ended and will challenge us to consider our perspectives, our assumptions and the life experiences that we bring.

As an introduction and, hopefully, an inspiration, here is one of my favourite poets on the value of questioning:

//I would like to beg you dear Sir, as well as I can, to have patience with// //everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves// //as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language.//

//Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because// //you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything.//

//Live the questions now.//

//Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it,// //live your way into the answer.//

Rainer Maria Rilke, 1903 in Letters to a Young Poet || **Resources**

Society for Philosophical Inquiry (Christopher Phillips) The Three Questions by Leo Tolstoy ||  ||
 * **Blogs of CoP Members**

Stephen Hurley: http://www.teachingoutloud.org || **About Your Guide: Stephen Hurley**

I haven't always been a good questioner. In fact, in my own growing up, I remember being encouraged to accept the answers that were given--without question! Well, that part of my life has changed and now I find that it's really all about the questions!

As a parent, I encourage my two young children to explore their world and ask as many questions as they want. Although they are still quite young, we're starting to engage in "question games" around the dinner table, the "winner" being the one who can come up  with the best question about something that we see.

As a teacher, I have attempted to organize my classroom around critical questions, alternative perspectives and new ways of seeing things.

Like so many that have taken this route, I believe that, without the questions, we have no compass. Without a compass...well, you know the rest! ||  ||
 * || **Joining the //Exploring the Questions// CoP**

If you are interested in possibly joining this CoP please contact me at the following email address.

stephen.hurley@teachingoutloud.org ||   ||