Does education kill curiosity?

" It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." Albert Einstein.

He also said: "Imagination is more important than knowledge" and "The only real valuable thing is intuition" and ""The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education" and "The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing" and - just to keep us humble, "Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods."

Two more and then I'll quit: "Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen" and "The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge."

Back to the first quote.

I've seen this quote, and others, by Einstein before. I love reading quotes, have lists and lists of them. But reading this one again at Judy's post (foregoing log) got me to thinking.

My mother has said a number of times that when I was small (before school mostly), I was always asking: "Why?". Drove her nuts. And I faintly remember that yet.

I wonder when I stopped asking.

I know that was at a young age already, before 7 I think. I wonder what happened.

It wasn't until many years later, after the 'gift of pain' in my 40's that I started wondering, and began asking, again. Almost 40 years is a long time to go without asking, "Why?"

I think Einstein was right.

The schools I attended were all, academically speaking, very good ones. And they were also Christian schools, all of them, all the way. Even the Christian college I attended is still in the top 20 colleges in the U.S. academically, yet I did not ask 'why?' during that time.

Why?

Now that I'm 65, I'm asking 'Why?' quite often again. Because I want to know.

I'm not the first to say this, but I will say it: Real learning begins AFTER you're out of school. And, for me, the learning began again when I stopped just 'believing' and doing what was expected of me, and began to look around, and began to ask 'Why?" again.

Does 'belief' kill real learning?

Why?