i'd trade smarts for curiosity every day of the week

​I think I've gained more smarts the last ten years than I did the entirety of my life before then. I know that's because for the first time in my life - I'm a curious person.

SMART: having or showing a quick-witted intelligence.
CURIOUS: eager to know or learn something.

You know, when I read those two definitions, it occurred to me there is a necessary order of the two. I think it's much easier to make a curious person smart than it is to make a smart person curious. Trust me - I know - it took me better than four decades to become someone who is 'eager to know or learn something.'

I think about our public school system - generally speaking. How so much of our testing is built on preparing kids to provide quick-witted intelligence to the questions on a test.

I say all the time these days, I gauge how 'smart' someone is by the kind of questions they ask, not by the answers they have. Which has me thinking. What if our kids' testing on a particular subject prompted them to ask 10 questions they have about what they've studied instead of 10 memorized answers to questions we think they should have.

Trust me, I could measure how much a kid knows about a subject based on their questions. And more importantly - MUCH more importantly - I'd know what they still WANTED to know.

I've heard it said that curious people aren't afraid of questions. Well, Hal Gregersen says, “The average 6-18 year old asks only 1 question per one-hour class per month.”

What does that say. We don't have curious kids? We aren't making time in their studies for questions?

I was one of those kids in school. I didn't ask many questions. In fact, I made it through my entire college experience without ever asking a question in a college classroom.

Which makes sense. I was never eager to learn.

What changed it for me? People did, I think.

One day I realized the person I am today is a product of what I've experienced along the way. And it clicked in me - that's true of you as well. So now I'm intensely curious about what you've experienced on your journey.

It's why I love doing podcasts. For an hour or so I get to sit and ask people questions - often seemingly ordinary people - who I discover are far from ordinary. Because I guess at the heart of my curiosity these days is the belief that none of us are remotely ordinary.

Not one single one of us. We ALL have a noteworthy story worth asking about.

My curiosity about people has made me more curious about my faith. You can't hear the stories from the people God created without having some questions for that creator.

How did that happen?

WHY did that happen.....?

I am wondering this morning. Yes, I'm asking the question. Have we designed a world that is structured to make people smart at the expense of stealing their sense of curiosity? And is that indirectly - or even directly - responsible for us believing we have all the answers we need when it comes to how we think and feel about one another?

Have we been built to make quick-witted decisions about who each other are at the expense of becoming eager to know and learn about one another?

Have we been built to become more judgmental than empathetic?

I don't know. I suppose that's just something I'm curious about.....