Nearly all babies are curious — the urge to find out begins as a ubiquitous and extraordinarily powerful psychological characteristic. But by the time children are five years old, environmental influences (parents, teachers, other children, as well as the physical environment) have begun to whittle each child’s curiosity into something narrower and often more fragile. For some children, curiosity disappears almost completely. But schools can do a great deal to foster the human need to know more. The stakes of this process are huge — when students are curious, their capacity to learn well is enormous; when they are not, it’s hard to teach them anything. Speakers: Susan Engel