I KEEP six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and
Why and When And How
and Where and Who.
These are the famous lines from the immortal poem accompanying the tale, The Elephant's Child , by Rudyard Kipling.
In a classroom or at a workplace or in any other situation how many of us ask questions?
Some feel that people may laugh if they perceive the question to be silly. Most of all the fear of embarrassment prevents one from asking questions.
But, according to a Chinese proverb: “He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; he who does not ask a question remains a fool forever.” But what if your question should spark an idea?
Challenging notions
Yes, asking questions is the basis of human progress. Path-breaking inventions and discoveries happened because somebody challenged the conventional thinking by asking a question.
Initially, people thought that the sun revolves around the earth until Copernicusquestioned that belief and proposed the heliocentric model.
Some of you may ask a lot of questions in the classroom or to your friends. Sometimes, people may say, “You ask a lot of questions and it is irritating.”
Asking questions is an art by itself. How and when to ask questions (some of us get a spark and ask doubt exactly at 12.59 p.m.) is as important as what to ask.
You can ask questions in a casual and pleasant way, but you could avoid trying to interrogate or cross-examine.
Generally people don’t like it when you ask probing, personal questions. Just check whether the question you are going to ask will add value to the conversation and help you towards achieving your objective.
Most teachers encourage questioning. Asking questions helps learning by integrating and reinforcing knowledge. When you ask the right questions you get the right results.
Personal dilemma
Often students are in a dilemma and unable to decide which job to take up or which college to join when they have multiple offers and one of the institutes offers certain benefits but asks them to relocate.
Questioning will help them in making the decision: “What will happen if I do? What will happen if I don’t? What won’t happen if I do? What won’t happen if I don’t?” The world belongs to those who question, find out the problem and offer creative solutions. One of the greatest scientists, Albert Einstein, said, “Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.”
So keep questioning!
