THANK YOU, Theresa, for your March 6, 24, 31, April 17, and May 1 donations. Team AoC truly appreciates your kind generosity!

Recently I read Origins Reconsidered - In Search of What Makes Us Human by Richard Leakey and Roger Lewin. I learned a great deal as well as thoroughly enjoyed the entire book. However, Part Six: In Search of the Future, contains one particular sentence which continues to resonate within me, “The night sky is full of unanswered questions.”

One Saturday and Sunday not too long ago after students put away their art materials and were returning to their seats for our few remaining moments of closing remarks, I found myself asking the children if they gazed into the dark night sky and if they did what did they think about. I assigned the students a little homework which entailed looking at the sky before going to bed and asking themselves three questions - questions about anything.

Here are just a few questions that students shared the following week:
When the moon is not full, does this mean the moon is broken?
Can stars fall down?
If a star falls down, can I find money at the place where the star landed?
Are there people on the moon?
And probably the most asked question was about rain.
Where does rain come from?

Valerie, Eric, Fahad and I answered some of the questions as best we could, but the primary purpose for the exercise was to provoke curiosity as well as accepting that not all questions have one finite answer and many questions may never arrive with conclusive answers. Isn’t life about asking questions? In turn, do we not spend a lifetime sifting through and exploring only to be spurred on by more questions?

We are into our second year of Art of Conservation classes and almost every group of students will ask, “Where do gorillas come from?” So continuing with life’s questions, we presented our current students with three questions:

1. When was Planet Earth formed?
2. When did life begin on Earth?
3. Where do gorillas come from?

Please join us as we explore together in the upcoming blog.

And thanks, Dr. Leakey, for your inspiring and insightful words.

Julie

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