Children Are Not “Natural” Scientists
I think Matthew gets it right: people sometimes equate curiosity with scientific inquiry, but that’s not right. Curiosity is a great trait for a scientist to have, but there’s a bunch of learned behavior that goes into doing science.
Great article. I am always wary of such claims along with concepts like “citizen science”, which give the message that “anyone can do science”.
If that were true, all the years that I spent doing a PhD were wasted and we wouldn’t need to teach science in schools because children are inate scientists.
We should take pride in the years of preparation — and ongoing learning — that it takes to become a good scientist, not trivialize it.