From Josef Pieper’s Guide to Thomas Aquinas:
. . . all knowledge of any depth, not only philosophizing, begins with amazement. If that is true, then everything depends upon leading the learner to recognize the amazing qualities, the mirandum, the “novelty” of the subject under discussion. If the teacher succeeds in doing this, he has done something more important than and quite different from making knowledge entertaining and interesting. He has, rather, put the learner on the road to genuine questioning.
Filed under: Education
Hm, Thomas Aquinas – he probably quoted from my Manifesto: http://www.cut-the-knot.org/manifesto/index.shtml
Thanks for sharing this great quote Jason. Love the link between learning and questioning.
Our kids see all the emphasis on having answers as proof of learning…nice to have some perspective on the questioning side of things. If having the right answers is proof of learning, maybe having the right questions is proof of having learned how to learn.
I’ve always thought Thomas Aquinas’ thought was excellent for teaching math. Especially the Aristotle idea of abstraction. Good stuff!
That is certainly my goal as a teacher. If I can’t help my students *want* to learn, they will forget everything I teach them fast enough…