The Art of Questioning: Reclaiming Curiosity in a Defensive World

Why I’m Writing About Questions

https://open.substack.com/pub/vincehill/p/the-art-of-questioning-reclaiming?r=167ttm&utm_medium=ios

I’ve been listening to politicians face questions lately, only to watch them deflect with spin, half-truths, and innuendoes. It raises a deeper unease in me: why are people so uncomfortable with honest questions from individuals simply searching for truth, trying to understand the why? While I’ve written a lot of political pieces lately, this feels more personal, more universal.

As a principal, a teacher, and a writer wrestling with the world’s noise, I’ve spent years teaching students to think critically, to probe deeper, to not settle for surface answers. Yet everywhere I look, questioning feels under siege. Curiosity, once my lifeline, now gets labeled as intrusive, unsafe, even threatening. We’ve traded wonder for defensiveness, and it’s costing us connection, wisdom, self-knowledge.

This three-part series, The Art of Questioning: Reclaiming Curiosity in a Defensive World, is my response. Starting today with Part 1, we’ll journey from the child who asks “why” to the adult who dares to again. I’ll share stories from my life, my classroom, my years learning to stay silent and then unlearning it. My hope is simple: to model a way of questioning rooted in care, not judgment, that helps us know others, the world, and ourselves better.

If you’ve ever felt your curiosity shrink, or sensed a world quick to shut down honest inquiry, this is for you. Join me weekly. Ask in the comments. Let’s rebuild what questions can be.

Submitted February 28, 2026 at 07:12AM by vhill01 https://ift.tt/QCaOStz