Survey of Five-to eight-year-old Children’s Questions.

Which shouldn’t remain unanswered?

John J McCarrick

I remember from years gone by, an

American programme on TV called,

‘Kids say the darndest things.’ And this is

so true. Even so, are we actually

answering these questions in an

appropriate way? It’s fine to answer a

pertinent question with adult aplomb but,

how do we reply in a language that is not

only correct in its application, but also in

a language which, the young recipient

can assimilate? Think of some of these:

‘Why do trees have leaves and why do

busy bees have stingers and pigs, flat

noses?’

‘If you could go anywhere in the World, for free, where would you go and why?’ And the list goes on, ad infinitum. Banal, probably so and, with somewhat questionable answers once again. However, these are an adult attempt to offer questions for an adult to answer. Not quite the same as asking a child to offer up a question, for which they have no answer; or if the adult response is actually correct. This in turn empowers the deliverer with a certain degree of, supposedly, advanced knowledge; to which a child should aspire?

So, then we come back to that old chestnut of how do we get a child’s response to a child’s question? Parents could be asked to allow us to listen in as Secret Squirrel does. But then some parents may not like the idea of their offspring compiling a journal of household shenanigans, for obvious reasons.

So, there you have it in its broadest terms; on which this survey should be considered. We need to know the greatest need of our young students, from a child student’s perspective, rather than our own? Difficult, I do believe so, as I reiterated earlier. As barring creeping up and down the land eavesdropping, can we actually put down on paper a questionnaire that incorporates all the combined thoughts of a body of young children? I don’t know. But what I do know is that a child from central Auckland is not going to have the same questions or for that matter the same experiences as a child from the country area of say Counties, or Pukekohe even? And yet all school children are lumped in together regardless of their ability or locality.

However, this conundrum must be pursued most vigorously. If only to gain a template for the future needs of students.

Me: Boy Scout as a child, and then time served tradesman in: engineering, league player pro-boxer pro-soccer player, and teacher at trade school in the UK, coach of school children in soccer, cricket and life skills on three continents and, played representative bowls and golf. Own businesses, marketing manager for a large organization, also Insurance Consultant for two large companies. Now, self-taught writer for the last ten years, of children’s short stories, poetry and articles about things that don’t work.

I am 83 this year and am only just getting started. So that’s me, take it or leave it, but I am a man of very strong convictions which are always taken care of. I am the Husband of Margaret, the father of Marc and Scott (both Wesley College boys) and grandfather of Jasmine and Sasha. I have also spent the last twenty-seven years in Puni, before moving to, Pukekawa.

Cheers JJ