"What question did you ask today?"

I just read this article about the Ministry of Education hiring a group of experts from the Israel Center for Excellence through Education to train "hundreds of Singaporean educators teaching in dozens of schools selected by the Education Ministry" to implement the Excellence 2000 Abroad program to encourage creativity and independent thought among students in Singapore, at an annual cost of $10,000 (in USD, presumably).

And here's what Hezki Arieli, the chairman of the Center for Excellence, said about this new intiative which is likely to herald the next wave of education in Singapore:

"I asked the Singaporean education minister why they wanted to buy our educational program when their students reach the top spots in international tests. He explained that education in Singapore is characteristic of revision for exams, memorization and practice, but the students lack the creativity, independent thinking and entrepreneurship that would prepare them for life. The minister told me they hold Israeli excellence, that is expressed in high-tech, science and technology, in high esteem."

This article reminded me of a speech given by NLB's former Chief Executive, Dr Christopher Chia, at one of the Staff Forum sessions when I first joined as a Librarian in 2000. If I recalled correctly, he was narrating an anecdote about education in Singapore (though I have forgotten the context for doing so), and it goes something like this:

When a child comes home after school in Singapore, his parents are likely to ask, "What did you learn today? How did you do for your tests?". In contrast, an Israeli parent is more likely to ask, "What questions did you ask in school today?".

All these years, this story stayed in my head, from the time I spent as a librarian manning the information counter, to my involvement in the Ask Stupid Questions innovation programme.

Recently, when I recited this little anecdote to my colleagues as we brainstormed about ways and means to expand the ASQ Movement into phase 2 in 2009, I was asked by Prabhjit if there was any factual basis for it. A fair enough question, since this might go into our published marketing collaterals, I thought, but I left it on my back burner. Until today.

So I put on my research cap, and eventually narrowed the results (mostly anecdotal) down a Powerpoint presentation which attributed the famous anecdote to the 1944 Noble laureate in physics, Isidor Isaac Rabi (1898–1988). I then dug a little deeper and found his anecdote about asking questions in two books:

Teaching for Intelligence
By Barbara Z. Presseisen
Published by Corwin Press, 2007
ISBN 1412955556, 9781412955553
Note: This title is not available in NLB libraries, but the NIE Library has 2 copies.

, from which I cite this passage:

My mother made made me a scientist without ever intending it. Every other Jewish mother in Brooklyn would ask her child after school, "So? Did you learn anything today?" But not my mother. She always asked me a different question. "Izzy," she would say, "did you ask a good question today?" That difference - asking a good question - made me become a scientist.

Other titles which referenced I.I.Rabi's story include:

Why Are School Buses Always Yellow?: Teaching for Inquiry, Pre K-5
By John Barell
Published by Corwin Press, 2007
ISBN 1412957338, 9781412957335
[Story in context]

The Five Faces of Genius: Creative Thinking Styles to Succeed at Work
By Annette Moser-Wellman
Published by Penguin, 2002
ISBN 0142000353, 9780142000359
Call No.: 658.4 MOS -[BIZ]
Available at Ang Mo Kio and Toa Payoh Public Libraries
[Story in context]

So for those of you who are parents, don't forget to ask you kids, "What questions did you ask today?". For those of you who are supervisors or employers sending your staff to our workshops, don't forget to ask them, "What Stupid Question did you ask today?". Better still, ask them every week or every day. :-)