Our last reading in CEP812 was a short piece entitled It’s P.Q. and C.Q. as Much as I.Q. by Thomas L. Friedman that was featured on the New York Times website about three years ago. In the article, Friedman suggest that “curiosity quotient” (CQ) and “passion quotient” (PQ) are just as important as someones IQ (2013). The article is only about a page long, so I would encourage you to read the whole thing, but the gist is that in this now “hyperconnected” world, in order for people to keep up they need to develop the curiosity and passion to be life-long learners (Friedman, 2013). It was an article that resonated with me deeply, and reflects a lot of my current thinking on how we need to push the education system forward in the 21st Century; mainly how we need to engage and inspire our students.

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This connected well with the last chapter in Warren Berger’s A More Beautiful Question, where Berger offers up some suggestions about how we can go about questioning the world in a way that can keep us moving forward. There was one quote in particular taken from teacher, David McCullough, that struck a chord with me, and I think can serve well to summarize the attitude that I would like to our education system ignite in our students, “Climb the mountain not to plant your flag, but to embrace the challenge, enjoy the air, and behold the view. Climb it so you can see the world, not so the world can see you,” (Berger, 2014).

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These readings, and this course have spurred a lot of reflection in me about myself as a lifelong learner, and how I use questions in my life. More than anything, I am built on CQ. My CQ pushes me to into various spaces, and then it pushes me further into those spaces. As I get further into a specific niche, my PQ begins to rise. Before you know it, I have a new passion in which I am deeply engaged, and am learning and experimenting with the fervor of a kindergartner. This can especially be seen in the summer, when I have time to engage in new learning without worrying about keeping up the status quo in other areas of my life.

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It would seem that I lose my CQ and PQ over time. I wonder why that is? I’d like to say it is time related, but I don’t think that is quite right. Perhaps CQ and PQ are domain related. As my CQ and PQ rise in one domain, they fall in another. The argument would be then that we have a limited amount of CQ and PQ, and how we allocate it matters.

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So, my question becomes, How can we give teachers and students the time they need during the school day to build their CQ and PQ?

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Final project time. Our last task in CEP812 and the Educational Technology Certificate Program from Michigan State was to create a media project that embodied our thoughts on questions, curiosity, passion, and teaching. I decided a remix video would be a fitting cherry to place on top of my education technology sundae. Enjoy.

 

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References:

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Berger, Warren. (2014). A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas. New York: Bloomsbury.

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Friedman, T. L. (2016, January 1). It’s the P.Q. And C.Q. As much as the I.Q. The Opinion Pages. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/30/opinion/friedman-its-pq-and-cq-as-much-as-iq.html?_r=0ΩΩ