Questioning as a Path to Learning
When I ask myself a question that interests me, then that leads me to seek my answers.
For many years I used the public library as my resource bank to investigate and explore.
There was a journey to the destination of finding a satisfactory answer to my questions.
Along the way I would often encounter other inspirational and informative materials.
They may have been in the books on the shelves beside the book the catalog listed.
I asked various people lots of questions.
I asked those that were considered experts and ordinary people .
I kept on seeking until I found my answer to my question.
And most of the time other questions arose along this path.
Some of those were intriguing enough for me to explore later.
So my times at the library and the books I checked out kept me engaged.
It was the way I gained the habit and life style of a lifelong learner.
During this process I became an interdisciplinary thinker.
That is because parts of my answers came for various fields.
I did not just seek in the psychology section or just in the self-help section.
I also explored the business management, marketing and creatively sections.
I gleaned insights from movies, magazine ads and TV shows.
When the Internet came along I used that for my resource bank instead of the library.
While preparing this article I searched online for the term ‘big questions’.
That took me to many sites.
Most of them did not help but a few did.
And I bookmarked the best ones to examine later.
During these journeys I came to highly value the power of questions.
I set out to collect the most challenging questions to ask myself and others.
I came to believe grappling with questions is the best way to motivate learners.
Some of the most challenging questions in my opinion are as follows:
UNIVERSAL
What is love?
What is reality?
What is truth?
What is beauty?
What or who is God?
What is art?
What is creativity?
What is the purpose of life?
What is the meaning of life?
What is justice and/or fairness?
What happens after a person dies?
What is right/wrong and good/evil?
What is worth dying for?
What is the best way to gain standards for morality and ethics?
How can we know anything?
Why do bad things happen to good people?
Why do good things happen to bad people?
If God is loving and all powerful then why is there suffering and injustice?
Why is there something rather than nothing?
Can truth be known and if so how?
What determines the life of each individual?
Which of the following factors are important?
Free will
Fate
Predestination
Higher Power
God
Destiny
Peer pressure
Media
Advertising
Propaganda
Role models
Heroes and heroines
Personality type
Luck
Chance
Coincidences
Serendipity
Survival of fittest
Socio-economic status
Who you know
Hard work
Self-discipline
Education
Experience
Astrology
Karma
Parents
Acting out on fears, resentments, urges, lust, greed, insecurity, pride, shame, guilt, vanity, etc.
Cause and effect
Choices and consequences
Nature and/or nurture i.e. genetic inheritance and/or environmental factors
How can a person understand the following:
Soul
Spirit
God
Body-mind connection
Brain-mind-emotions connection
Health and emotions and memories and psychosomatic matters
Angels
Demons
Devil – Satan
Heaven
Hell
Faith
Reason
Intuition
Honor
Freedom
Liberty
Success
Wealth
Power
Virtue
PERSONAL
Who am I?
Where did I come from?
Where is my home?
Where do I belong?
Who is in my family?
Who is in my community?
Why am I here?
Who can I trust?
What is my purpose?
What am I responsible for and who am I responsible to?
Who loves me and cares about me?
Who do I love and who do I care about?
How can I make a difference during my lifetime?
How can I become involved in something bigger than me and my family?
What will be my legacy after I have gone from this life?
What does success look like for me?
If I had unlimited time and money then what would I do?
What are my passions?
What makes me happy?
What do I enjoy?
How can I find satisfaction?
How can I improve and increase my self-esteem, self-worth, self-image, self-respect, etc.?
What is worthwhile as an investment of my time and talents?
If you were diagnosed to die in a year with cancer how would you spend your last year?
How can a person improve and increase the following character qualities?
This list is useful for individual self-improvement, parenting and teaching.
Humility
Kindness
Honesty
Generosity
Self-control
Love
Patience
Perseverance
Compassion
Empathy
Integrity
Tolerance
Curiosity
Courage
Respect
Dependability
Responsibility
Accountability
Flexibility
Gratitude
Mindfulness
Open mindedness
Thoughtfulness
Understanding
Friendly
Authentic
Here are many more personal questions.
Here is a link to my collection of lists of questions.
They relate mostly to Christianity.
I noticed that very few pastors or church members even consider these matters.
There are more than enough questions here to get any person going on a quest.
There are some that will resonate strongly with you.
Choose a few questions then invest your time and energy to explore each one.
The Internet is a great place to start but that is not the only source of inputs.
Also ask lots of people from all kinds of backgrounds.
Many people truncate their learning by not allowing themselves to even consider certain questions.
It was Socrates that said an unexamined life is not worth living.
Questions are proven ways to examine your life.
Here is a list of provocative questions with an interactive interface.
No comments:
Post a Comment