Unfortunately, when your child goes to school, questions may mostly come from teachers. School is sometimes a place where children may memorize and repeat answers provided by adults and textbooks. While there are exceptional schools and exceptional teachers, researchers paint a fairly gloomy picture of the kinds of classroom questions which prevail. Many teachers and some school systems prize student questions, but if your child's does not, you can encourage questions at home from the very beginning. You can teach your child to be a skillful questioner as well as when to use this powerful skill.
Questions are essential tools for real problem-solving.
When faced with surprising, intriguing and baffling challenges as a child or adult, we will find the most effective solutions and answers by applying good questioning skills. Solving the unfamiliar and surprising problem is like untangling a fishing line that has become snarled in a seemingly hopeless knot. You pull here first, then there. Through trial and error, hunch and intuition, you begin to make sense of the mess. Problem-solving demands a similar spirit of inquiry and lots of questions.