Dodging Bullets

By:Matthew Kronstrand

Is there such thing as a stupid question? Yes there’s definitely such thing as a stupid question. There’s a saying that my mother came up with because my sister usually asked some pretty stupid questions and he response is a sarcastic remark and my sister would always ask, “why did you answer with that?”

An example of this is my mom got a new hair style and the first thing my sister asked is “did you change your hair?” My moms slogan when asked a stupid question was ask a stupid question and you get a stupid answer. So with this in mind my mom responds with “No most of it fell off and my hair changed color over night.” So now my sister and I know not to ask anymore questions that might be stupid or get a sarcastic remark which actually helps me in the future.

I was confused at the fact that he wrote as fast as he did, but I was more surprised that no student is having any trouble with the speed he is going. As he kept writing the more I knew that I needed to do start writing stuff down or take a picture or something so that I am not completely left in the dust. Once he finished the problem, I looked puzzled at the board, the teacher asked the class if they were ok with that problem and if anyone needed help with that problem. Not a single person said they didn’t understand.

The time I wanted to ask a stupid question was when I was in math one day and I could not keep up with what the teacher was putting on the board. I would look at the board and he would have an problem number on the board and didn’t start writing the problem on the board. Once I looked down at my paper to write the number of what problem we were doing out of the book, I had looked up and the problem was done and the board was clustered with equations and he was almost done with the problem. I could not follow what he was writing on the board asking myself if we were even taught this and he was writing so fast that It was like I was getting motion sickness.

The room was silent and all you could hear is my heart rate getting higher and higher and louder and louder. In my head I knew I needed help and I was afraid to hold up the whole class who was ready to move on to the next problem and I was afraid to ask a question that might have been stupid. My heart was racing as fast as it would go and I knew If I didn’t ask the question that I would not know this problem especially for the test which the end of the semester was just a week away and the test was in two days. I was conflicting myself whether or not I should ask how to do that problem. I know most teachers would encourage the student to ask questions when stuck but I still kept it to myself.

I finally said screw it and was seconds away from asking how did you start that problem, but then I was saved. Then to my amazement someone asked. “How did you get that beginning I wasn’t paying attention. I was so relived someone asked the stupid question I was afraid to ask. The student was a well known “question everything” person in the class and a sign of relief was given to myself as this Knight in Shining Armor made the whole class mad except for me. The teacher went slower than before and I was able to understand the problem.

The student still had no idea what was going on and asked another stupid question and now the whole class ended up mad at him. In the whole class all you hear is f words and cussing and murmuring which then lead to laughter once he asked what was going on again. The question seemed so stupid to the class that even the teacher even started to do a weird laugh that no one had heard before. This person pretty much took multiple bullets and a lot of hate for me and they didn’t even know it and for that I am thankful and grateful So yes their is such thing as a stupid question, and I was so glad I didn’t have to ask it.

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