People are not taught the why of things.
Our education consists of endless hours of the how. How to do things, but not why. We place a high value on skill at the expense of understanding.
To explore the why of things gives people critical thinking skills.
Without the why, we lack the big picture. Without the ability to figure things out we are stalled when things don’t work. We don’t know how to fix things. We don’t have a clue what to do, even with the simplest problems.
Why promotes curiosity, exploration, development, creativity. Things that are desperately missing in today’s world.
Hi Pat. This reminded me of a bad labour job I had in Manitoba. Or job was to fill and push heavy wheelbarrows down a bumpy gravel road. We hated it. One day they dumped a huge pile of gravel in the middle of the road and told us to grab a shovel and pile it all on one side of the road. If we finished it today, they told us tomorrow you can move it all to the other side. Who wants to do that? What they didn’t tell us was why. It turned out that once we pushed tons of gravel to one side of the bad road, they would pave that side. When we pushed it back to the other side, they would pave that side too and our everyday job would be a lot easier. Duh! I agree with you that knowing why is as important as knowing what.