Why oh why

I'm sure you've all been blessed at some point to experience a conversation like the following at some point in your lives:

Honey, it's time to get dressed.
Why?
Because your aunt's coming today.
Why?
Because she wants to see you.
Why?
Because you're her favorite niece
Why?

And, I'm sure at this point, you're beginning to wonder why yourself.  Why do our children ask so many questions?  And how irritating is that phase when their only response to your answers is followed by but why?  You begin to wonder if it's their evil scheme to drive you absolutely crazy or maybe you start looking for hidden cameras to see if someone's punking you.  Honestly, our children are driven to be creative, to think critically about their surroundings and above all, to be curious.

On the other hand, why appears to be lost in Ugandan classrooms.  After digging through past sixth and seventh grade papers, I was completely shocked at what rock stars these kids are at English grammar, especially for being their second language.  Even for me, some the questions seemed vague, and I wasn't quite sure what they were asking for, but they appeared to have breezed through the whole section.  Maybe it's because grammar is a formula and can be easily memorized, which is exactly how it is taught here; however, when you flip the page, you find a whole different story.  Half of their exam is reading comprehension, and sadly, they leave most of the questions blank.  And, it's not just in their English exams.  Even in their social studies and science papers, whenever a question starts with why or what is the importance of, I only find a white space.  Now, this is not to say that Ugandan children aren't curious.  I can feel their curiosity as their jumping up and down outside my window just to get a peek at what I might be doing in my free time; however, it's just not channeled properly.

So, I've made it my mission to get teachers to start asking why.  I want children to start driving their teachers insane by asking why why why.  Ok, not actually, but I do want them to at least be able to answer the question themselves!

For example, let me tell you what I did with my fifth grade class last week.  We made a class story.  I gave a little bit of structure, but they had to fill in the details.

"Once, there was a lion who was named Susan.  Susan lived in Jinja with the a girl named Nahyuha (pronounced Na-shoe-ha).  One day, Susan and Nahyuha were swimming in the Nile River, until suddenly it began to rain.  Susan and Nahyuha started running because they feared getting cold and sick.  They wanted to put on sweaters, but Susan didn't have one.  So, Susan killed a Zebra to wear its fur.  Susan and Nahyuha were hungry from all the running and swimming, so they ate fish, posho and rice while drinking water."

Even though we came up with the story as a class, they told me why Susan and Nahyuha left the river, they couldn't answer our reading comprehension questions.  I'm not even sure they knew that they needed the word because in there somewhere.

So, the next time a child is tugging on your shirt, saying but whhhhhyyyy for the millionth time, just smile and be happy they're on the road to discovery and exploration.