Keep Asking Questions
And don’t stop once you become an adult.
There’s a story I often tell about an experience I had in elementary school — when I was in fourth grade, my teacher put a restriction on how many questions I was allowed to ask per day.
She told me I could only ask three questions, so I had to make sure that they were perfect, important, and pertinent to whatever lesson she was teaching at the time.
I know that the elementary school teachers and educators might be horrified as they read this. For questions, especially in a classroom, should be fostered. Nurtured. Encouraged. It is not a norm to squash the questions of young minds. Usually, a student is asking these things because they’re eager and excited, and in need of positive validation from the adult or teacher in the room — not to be an annoyance.
Looking back, I also recognize that my teacher at the time was dealing with a group of thirty children, all of whom needed to be fostered, nurtured, and encouraged — and there was only one of her to do that. I now know that she wasn’t putting a question moratorium on me to be cruel, or mean, or make me feel bad. I know she wasn’t looking to invoke shame but rather have me think and plan about the words I needed to speak. It was classroom management, albeit misguided.
