My Dad has this parable he enjoys relaying about how his superiors are often flabbergasted at his knowledge and inner workings of mechanics, engineering, politics, world events, and a plethora of other topics. These pearls of wisdom come at the expense of the other person when they are unable to do a mathematical calculation or find the answer to a seemingly simple question, but they are pearls, nonetheless. His punchline is always the same: “If they don’t believe me, I tell them they can go Google it for themselves.” For my Dad, this is code for something resembling far less tact.
As an educator, I get asked plenty of questions. These usually revolve around mundane, protocol objectives, such as “When is this due?”, “Do we have to do this?”, “Is this for a grade?”, “Are you going to count off for spelling?”, and “Do we have to write in complete sentences?”. The sad state of things is that I usually posit more questions to my students than I get asked. Let me rephrase that: I posit more questions of substance to my students than I get asked in return.
The purpose of this “Discover Challenge” is to dissect and explore a time when we were asked a question where we had to weigh the options of how we would answer. As I sat down ready to whet my appetite surrounding tough discussions, I realized it’s been a long time since I’ve had one. Perhaps I’m in an echo chamber and everyone I converse with has similar beliefs. However, in my experience it’s not so much the echo chamber affecting the complexity of questions asked but that the art of asking a good question is disappearing, and with it, the ability to think critically and use empathy to formulate a response is slipping away.
The one question I’ve been stumped to find a reasonable and innovative solution to is “how do I make my English class more beneficial for my students?”. I believe I have found my answer. It wasn’t one I could Google though I did search for lesson ideas and discussion techniques. In an age where finding information, both factual and half-baked, is basically implanted into us at youth, we need to focus on how to ask questions that require empathy and conversation to answer and not the Internet to “just Google it”.
Unbound 