Just Ask

As students, we are often told “there is no such thing as a bad question”. This is told to students to encourage them to ask for help in understanding, to further discussion on topics, and to help students find their voice and speak out instead of being confused and not learning as they never ask the question. When kids begin going to school and learning new subjects, they will inevitably be confused at some point, however; they do not want to feel dumb by asking a question that seems obvious. It is important to ask these questions, while there may be times where one is simply having a mental block and just can not grasp something, if one person has a question about something, it is almost always true that someone else has the same question and is confused just as much.

I am a strong believer that there is no such thing as a bad question because what is most important in a situation is that someone understands something that they did not before and it does not matter how dumb it may seem to others around them. There have been many times throughout my childhood and adolescence that I have asked questions that on the surface seem dumb given the audience, ranging from a question about integral calculus three months after we had covered it that I never truly understood to asking my friends if they had seen my phone as I am looking for it using the flashlight function on it. These both seem like dumb questions to ask given the audience and circumstances, however; these questions allowed me to figure something out that I was having a hard time with. Simply asking these questions, no matter how intellectually challenging, often leads to an answer and desired clarity that allowed me to move forward.

The moment I remember most distinctly when asking a question that could’ve made me look foolish was last year in AP English Language and Composition with Mr. Luchini and about twenty other students or so. We were having a big class discussion about a book we read where we were given a prompt asking us how we felt about the character and their choices both through action and through rhetoric. The discussion began and everyone began to state their opinions on the subject. Quickly, the class was divided into two sets of beliefs, one side of the room believed in belief set A and the other side in belief set B. Concurrently I had been taking into account everyone was saying and had formed my own belief that seemed completely different from either set of beliefs with ideas that had not been mentioned throughout the discussion. I sat in the middle with my paper and pen taking notes as the discussion continued, deciding whether I should speak up about what I think could be a possible answer to the question that strayed so far from both sets of established classroom beliefs. I sat and slouched in my chair, I began to raise my hand a couple times but continues to overthink my statement and therefore quickly lowered my hand again. I started to feel like I had waited too long and everyone would just kindly disregard what I said and kind of nudge it off as a cute idea. I began to doubt myself more and more, then silence. No one else knew what to say, a stalemate between the two sides had occurred as it just turned into repeating the same facts back and forth. I took a deep breath and said to myself, “what’s the worst that can happen?”. I raised my hand and stated my outlandish claim and belief to the class, much to my surprise, it sparked conversation. It brought an entirely new perspective to the discussion and lit a flame under the two sides’ beliefs and allowed for new interpretations of the question.

As the class continued to discuss the issue at hand, I began to realize that I should’ve asked the question so much sooner. Holding onto the nervousness and worry about what might happen only held back myself and the discussion. As previously mentioned, the most basic questions and the most difficult questions both lead to the same place, new knowledge, so ask questions and don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. There is no such thing as a bad question.

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