The Ingredients of Enthusiasm: An Inquiry

Enthusiasm can be created by a wide variety of different things. Many factors work together to create an enthusiasm for learning. Even though this is true, nothing is more important to creating enthusiasm than curiosity. Curiosity about something causes a person to to question it and want to learn more about it. A person will not stop questioning it until they finally get an answer, and the only way to get the answers is to learn. Children ask so many questions because they are very curious, which in turn makes them very eager to learn about whatever they are questioning. Curiosity is more likely to take place with interesting topics that students haven't already learned about. When students have to learn about something that they already know about, it eliminates all enthusiasm that they may have previous had for the topic. Enthusiasm for learning is sparked by curiosity, and without curiosity the enthusiasm can be virtually nonexistent.