Wonder - by Frank C Keil (Hardcover)

About the Book

"An explanation of where children's scientific intuitions come from and how they can be nurtured. Intended not just for scholars but science teachers and enthusiasts as well"--

Book Synopsis

How we can all be lifelong wonderers: restoring the sense of joy in discovery we felt as children.

From an early age, children pepper adults with questions that ask why and how Why do balloons float? How do plants grow from seeds? Why do birds have feathers? Young children have a powerful drive to learn about their world, wanting to know not just what something is but also how it got to be that way and how it works. Most adults, on the other hand, have little curiosity about whys and hows; we might unlock a door, for example, or boil an egg, with no idea of what happens to make such a thing possible. How can grown-ups recapture a child's sense of wonder at the world? In this book, Frank Keil describes the cognitive dispositions that set children on their paths of discovery and explains how we can all become lifelong wonderers.

Keil describes recent research on children's minds that reveals an extraordinary set of emerging abilities that underpin their joy of discovery--their need to learn not just the facts but the underlying causal patterns at the very heart of science. This glorious sense of wonder, however, is stifled, beginning in elementary school. Later, with little interest in causal mechanisms, and motivated by intellectual blind spots, as adults we become vulnerable to misinformation and manipulation--ready to believe things that aren't true. Of course, the polymaths among us have retained their sense of wonder, and Keil explains the habits of mind and ways of wondering that allow them--and can enable us--to experience the joy of asking why and how.

Review Quotes

"Wonder is simply wonderful. Summarizing recent scientific discoveries, many from his own lab, Frank Keil demolishes a deficit view of young learners and replaces it with a portrait of the child as a curious scientist, fully capable of asking and exploring an endless sequence of questions about how and why the world works. A must-read for any parent or educator who believes a young mind is a terrible thing to waste."--Angela Duckworth, Founder and CEO of Character Lab, #1 New York Times best selling author of Grit.

"How to perpetuate wonder -- and respect for science -- in adulthood is the heart of [Keil's] appealing book."--Nature

"This book has given me hope by proposing a future for my children that will remain wonder-full."--American Scientist

About the Author

Frank C. Keil is Charles C. & Dorathea S. Dilley Professor of Psychology at Yale University, where he is also a member of the Cognition and Development Lab. He is the author of Developmental Psychology: The Growth of Mind and Behavior and other books.