U-Shaped Lightning Rod

I was in Lewiston, Maine at Lewiston Regional Technical Center (LRTC), in the electrical class getting ready to learn. So our teacher Mr. Cushman started teaching and throughout class a kid in my class would ask dumb questions.

The question that he asked last was, “Mr. Cushman, what if I invented the U-Shaped lightning rod.” Everyone one in the class was just confused and started laughing at him for asking that question. The kid who asked the question thought it was funny too because he knew it was just a joke as well when he asked it. Our teacher asked him why he would want to invent the U-Shaped lightning rod and what the purpose would be. The kid said that it was going to be used for when there is lightning and the lightning would strike the U-Shaped Lightning rod and would go through the lightning rod in the U-shape, and go straight back up to where it came from. We all asked him what the purpose would be for that to happen and he just shrugged and said he did not know either he just thought it was a good and funny idea. Mr Cushman just laughed and said “Well you should keep that to yourself.” Then we continued our class. If the kid in the class did not ask that question no one would have known about the amazing idea of the useless need of the U-Shaped Lightning rod that would do nothing. After this we just stopped doing book work for the day and went into the workshop to do some real life work.

Another time this kid in my class asked a question that he did not need to ask because it made no sense and had nothing to do with what we were talking about. We were talking about fire alarms and where to put them in a house and where you can not put them in your house. So as we were talking about where we can put them he asked the question, “Mr. Cushman, what if the hallway to your room was a crawl space?” Everyone one in the class started to laugh at his question that was dumb and not needed. And our teacher Mr. Cushman looked at him with a big smile and laughed and said, “Why would the hallway to your room be a crawl space?” and the kid quickly responded saying “No no Mr. Cushman, just, what if the hallway to your room was a crawl space?” and then our teacher said, “It wouldn’t be” and then the kid said again “But what if?” Then our teacher just continued with the class. But “What if” this kid in my class did not ask this question? Most likely nothing would have happened because of it, because it was a useless question that made no sense. The whole time I was listening in on the conversations that this kid in my teacher, Mr. Cushman were having about the U-Shaped lightning rod and your hallway being a crawl space. I was just thinking about how he could come up with all these random ideas and inventions on the fly like that and then proceed to ask them even if they were dumb. Through the whole class I was laughing about how he would ask them even though they did not make any sense to anyone or even himself.

Imagine if the kid in my LRTC program did not ask Mr. Cushman if the idea of the U-Shaped lightning rob would be a good idea. If he did not ask he would have thought that it was still a good idea to make. If we did not tell him that the idea of the U-Shaped lightning rob would be useless then he would have continued with his idea and theory that it would be a good idea to invent. So now that we told him that it would be useless to create and that he would not gain any money from this product because it serves no purpose and there is no need for the invention of it. But do not be afraid to ask a question even if you think it may be dumb. Also, if the kid did not ask the question about the hallway to your room being a crawl space, then we would not have fully known how dumb of questions that he can come up with to ask the class, but mostly nothing would have happened even if he did not ask.

Photo on Foter.com