Inquiry is the skill of asking questions. Not just any questions, but important, meaningful and relevant questions. The purpose of teaching this skill is to inspire and nurture curiosity.
Too many adolescents confuse healthy curiosity with being nosy. Unfortunately, so do many of their parents.
So I thought I might try to differentiate between the two so we we can separate the good from the bad. The difference lies in the purpose behind each.
Curiosity is a fundamental necessity for learning. Without it, questions go unasked, problems go unsolved, progress comes to a grinding halt. The basic purpose of curiosity is foster learning. Questions lead to other questions with the end result being greater understanding of one's self, one's neighbors, or of a problem or issue. Curious people tend to become problem-solvers. Curious people tend to try to help others. Curious people tend to have something of value to offer society.
"Nosiness" is best described as a sort of voyeurism. You want to know things for cheap thrills or temporary entertainment purposes. You nose around in someone's business as a means of finding out some salacious details that you can gossip about. Or you nose around so you can get some sort of sick thrill out of embarrassing or humiliating someone. It can also be a means of learning as a way to manipulate or control another person. You nose around in someone's business so that you can use that against them at some later time. Either way, a nosy person is usually up to no good.
I hope this at least partially clears up the difference between "curious" and "nosy."
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