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Asking downward questions.

“So often adults ask questions that go across. They need to ask downward questions.” With a lot of humour, yet a seriousness about it, the teenagers from Forandringsfabrikken (translates: the change factory) confidently shared from their lives and their experiences in being met by adults at challenging points in their lives. Forandringsfabrikken is a centre of knowledge here in Norway, where they gather knowledge from large amounts of children and teenagers in all kinds of situations and settings, and then write knowledge reports that are used when decisions are made that affect children and teens (laws, how things are done etc.). On their webpage they say that: “Knowledge from children is summarised experiences and advice that isn’t linked to theory or analysis by adults.”

It was a fascinating and very informative hour of hearing from the three teenagers who had so much to share, and a different perspective which I take with me. Not just into encounters with children and teens, but also in meeting people. I think sometimes we need to meet people in new ways; meeting them not assuming we know, but asking questions to learn and find out. And that is where “downward questions” comes into play. It was explained in such a simple way: “across questions” are when you ask questions to learn about the order of events; questions that go from A to B. Downward questions go into the heart and ask about the feelings and experiences, and maybe even the background for the situation or the reasons why. Downward questions don’t assume, but ask to learn and seek to understand. Downward questions are more interested in the person then in the action or event.

I want to get better at downward questions. Better at asking them in encounters with individuals, but also in my own reflections on life and the world. I think it’s something you grown in as you live it, and it minimises the assumptions we make by filtering what we perceive through our own lives and experiences.

And so as I carry this new definition of something that has been familiar, I conclude that there is hope for the future. Lots of hope if these three teenagers are an example of the potential and depth that is found in the coming generations.

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