Questioning

My husbands wonderful family just spent their hard earned vacation in New York.  I love being able to spend some time with them and their children.  Yesterday we drove the short hour over the border to the falls.  I know this is a wonder of the world, and as a person who lives so close, I do not visit often enough.  As we sat in front of the falls at the Table Rock lookout my 8 year old neice asked me a question:

"When does the water run out?"  When I told her it doesn't, she said " It has to, look at all of it, it has to run out.  Where does all of the water come from?"  " Why won't it run out?"

 I tried my best to convince her that it would keep flowing like it had for thousands of years.  I told her about the great lakes, the water cycle, and any other reason I could think of, but she questioned my reasons.  I finally had to tell her to just believe me,she would have to take it on faith.



Today I began to think about questioning. I tell my students to think about the questions they think about while reading, it will make them better readers.  How often do we really think about questioning?  How often do we question? If questioning while you read makes you a better reader, does questioning while you walk though life make you a better person?



I am not sure if the answer to that question, but I do believe questioning makes me a better teacher.  "Did I reach all of the student's with this lesson?"  "How can I  improve this lesson?"  "Do I know enough about this topic?" " How can I make this a memorable experience?" "What new teaching strategies are there?"  The questions I ask myself are endless, and although many have concrete answers, some are just rhetorical.   And some times I just have to close my eyes, believe in what I am doing, and take it on faith. 



We should all question like a child, and believe, even if it seems to awesome to believe.