Asking Questions: A Plea

“The important thing is not to stop questioning.” Albert Einstein

William James in The Varieties of Religious Experience tells the story “of a man who found himself at night slipping down the side of a precipice. At last, he caught a branch that stopped his fall and remained clinging to it in misery for hours. But finally, his fingers had to lose their hold, and with a despairing farewell to life, he let himself drop. He fell just six inches. If he had given up the struggle earlier, his agony would have been spared.”

I want to draw a moral from this story regarding students’ hesitancy to ask questions. There seems to always be great resistance to asking questions and the reasons are pretty standard. People don’t want to look like they don’t understand something. People don’t want to feel stupid. People want to understand things on their own without assistance.

The struggle I want to address here and encourage you to give up is the struggle to understand without assistance. It is a noble struggle which is what makes it so difficult to give up. I should point out that I don’t mean for you to give up the role of being a self-learner. After all, you are your best teacher in the sense that discovering things for yourself is one of the best ways to truly learn something. However, of great assistance to this can be your instructors. Look upon them as your assistants in the learning process. The instructor is not in charge of your learning or understanding; you are. But they can be of great help. One way they can do this is to answer questions you may have. But to take advantage of this help you have to convince yourself that asking questions doesn’t necessarily mean you’re giving up your role as a self-learner. You are instead supplementing your role as a self-learner.

The relationship between student and instructor is very much like the relationship between player and coach in sports. The player is responsible for executing but the coach can give useful advice and pointers on how to improve the execution. Sometimes the coach does this without being asked by the player but often the player asks for advice. In the classroom, the practice is usually one where the lectures given by the instructor serve as unsolicited advice. Players (students) who need further assistance then must ask questions.

Everyone from time to time needs help with something. Above I mentioned several reasons people have for not asking questions. They don’t want to look like they don’t already understand and they don’t want to look stupid. These are understandable feelings but they can become impediments to learning if they prevent a student from seeking the assistance they need. Now, of course, some classrooms are not friendly places for asking questions, and let’s face it we’ve all had instructors who are not as open to questions as we’d like. But even here there’s a lesson to be learned. Throughout the course of our lives, we all will run into people and situations that are difficult. What we do in response to them will be the test of our resolve. I say we should face these challenges, accept them for what they are, and perhaps gain something from the struggle. The psychiatrist and holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl once said “conditions do not determine me, but I determine whether I yield to them or brave them.” Now, certainly, any situation we face in the classroom can’t be worse than the holocaust Frankl survived!

Still, I’m not saying that we should hope for hostile classroom settings. But, truth be told these are not very common and most instructors very much want to help you by answering your questions. But, we can’t pursue you! You have to meet us halfway. As is often said, there are no stupid questions except the ones that never get asked. Besides, if you have a question about something another student likely has the same question. So, you’re not alone and you’re not the only one and you’re not going to look stupid for asking your question.

"No man really becomes a fool until he stops asking questions." Charles Steinmetz

Look at it this way. If you went to a restaurant and the waiter was not bringing you a menu you’d ask for one. If you went to a grocery store and couldn’t find what you were looking for you’d ask someone. If you went to a department store and wanted to try on some clothes but couldn’t find the dressing room you’d ask someone. So, what’s so different about the classroom? As in the other examples, you’re paying for a service in the classroom. You’re paying for the opportunity to learn something. If you’re not getting what you paid for you should ask someone! Who? The instructor!

And what’s the worse that could happen? Like the man in the story above you might fall six inches. You might find that for a moment you feel uncomfortable as you ask your question. But, once you get your answer you’ve gained something well worth the small price you paid. And asking one question might make it easier to ask a second. Plus, your act of asking a question might make someone else feel that much more comfortable about asking their question. So, you’ve helped yourself and a classmate as well.

As Martin Heidegger once said, “questioning is the piety of thought.” Many people mistakenly think that the mark of wisdom or intelligence is not having to ask questions, but the opposite is true. The mark of intelligence is knowing that it’s OK to ask questions and seek answers. Socrates was judged the wisest of all men because he knew there were many things he did not know. So, he asked questions. I hope you will too. It really is the best way to further your goal of being a self-learner.