The Stupid Question

Have you ever heard of the quote, "The only stupid question is the one you don't ask"?

I used to believe that too.  Until I was insulted by my teacher for asking a question. 

The logic of the quote makes perfect sense.  If you don’t understand something, then ask someone else about it and you can learn by asking the question, even if it sounds ridiculous.  Asking questions to try to understand things you don’t understand is the equivalent of opening new doors to new explorations and opportunities.

I learned from the past that if I don’t speak up and ask questions for myself, no one else will.  I need to do things on my own, and there won’t always be somebody standing there with me guiding me through the next step of my life.  If I don’t act, things will stay the same.  I finally realized that a year or so ago, but I was always still too shy to speak out and talk to others that I didn’t know very well.  I finally started to speak up for myself and to try to make my voice and opinions heard, to make some kind of influence on things.  Ever since, I’ve learned more about things, and I have gotten to know more people and things about them.  I started to ask questions in class like I never had, because I was to shy to talk to teachers.  By asking more questions, I started to finally understand the things that I didn’t understand before, and was able to use that new knowledge for other things that were influenced by it. 

I have begun to speak up around school, and am pursuing new opportunities, like PTSA.  If I have a question about something in class, I ask the teacher about it, instead of asking a friend to ask the question for me. 

This Tuesday, (I won’t mention what class for the sake of the teacher, but those who have that class with me and talk to me probably heard me talking about it for a while) I didn’t understand the question that the teacher gave us to work on.  I asked a clarifying question, just to make sure that the question was correct and that he/she didn’t write the question incorrectly.  He/she responded by saying to me “I don’t even know why you asked that question.”

It was seriously insulting to hear a teacher say that to me.  I was honestly confused and unsure about how to answer the question he/she put up.  I wasn’t the only person who didn’t understand it either.  I asked the classmates around me if they understood, and the people around me did not.  After I got that response from the teacher, I wrote in my notebook, “I’m only asking for those who did not want to ask, and because I don’t get it.  It’s not a crime to ask.  I’m not the only one who had that question.  I’m just the only one who was willing to ask.”

I don’t think I’m asking questions in that class again.