Idiocy has an Answer

We’ve all felt as if the room’s eyes were on us at some point. And we’ve all felt as if we had asked a stupid question, or, in my case at least, have actually asked at stupid question. Well, today is the day I tell the story of when I had actually asked a stupid question.

It starts off as a normal, normal for me at least, day. I was in my fourth grade class and we were sitting in the circle for a new lesson. Now, I’d like to interject and say, back then, I was not the model student. In fact, I was one of the worst students. I disrespected teachers and students alike without much care for consequences. This caused a lot of distrust between my teachers and I. This was also around the time when the “What are those?” meme was popular. I was bored and wanted to cut right to the chase instead of waiting for the rest of the class to settle in. So, when my teacher, Mr. Pellitier, sat at the head of the circle and pulled out the work papers for the lesson to come, I wasted no time, with a bit of a smirk because I was reminded of the said meme, asking “What are those?”, while pointing at the stack of papers in his hand. The whole class burst out laughing, my friends one of the first, and my teacher got this look on his face. It kind of looked like a mixture of exasperation and frustration. Then he said, “ODubois24, go to your desk.”. I was confused and flabbergasted.

“What? Why though? It was a genuine question!” I exclaimed.

“I’ve had enough of you today. Go to your desk and I’ll come talk to you later, after I get everyone else started.” He replied, looking done with the whole situation already.

“But I didn’t do anything wrong?! That’s unfair!” I said, feeling frustrated and embarrassed. My friends were looking between the two of us like it was a tennis match, laughing a bit when I replied to him.

“You caused a disruption to the class. Go sit at your desk or I’ll have to send you to another class, and if you continue to cause a disruption, I’ll call the office.” He told me.

“Fine. Whatever.” I mutter, getting up and shuffling over to my desk across the classroom and put my head down, ignoring the lesson that finally started.

Eventually, when he was done with the lesson, he came over and tried to talk to me. I ignored him, keeping my head down, too embarrassed and frustrated to even face him. He eventually gave up and just let me sit there for the rest of the lesson period.

This is when I learned that my actions can, and most likely will, have lasting consequences. And, that sometimes, there are dumb questions, and you know what they say, stupid questions get stupid answers.

“Heads down” by Ella (local colours) is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.