Disclaimer: The following is a rant that’s pretty long and has a few math-related references so read at your own risk. Also, if you don’t like it when I sound angry but with good reasons, you should probably glance on over to another post. Here goes.
I generally dislike people who waste everyone’s time (mine included) by asking completely nonsensical questions (especially if it’s on a regular basis and by the same culprit). I’m not high and lofty, thinking that clarifying questions aren’t a good use of my time (assuming I understand what’s going on). Different people understand different things at different rates. That’s fine.
It’s just counter-productive when, say, some pompous IB kid decides to “prove the teacher wrong” by asking–nay, challenging–about whatever’s on the board or a question on a quiz. Personally, I think I’ve slowly moved past the stage of “OMG you’re wrong, look here’s why…” into the “Alright, so I got this question wrong. Here’s how I think it works, but explain to me where I went wrong.” I noticed the former attitude in myself part-way through last year, and I also started noticing it more and more in some classmates too. I’ve cut back significantly on the teacher-hassling this year (and the end of last year). Some IB kids are too smart (or at least, we think we are) for our own good.
Back to my point, I don’t go challenging the teachers (especially not Ms. Yeganegi, but I used to quite a bit) anymore, and it really bugs me when some other kids with much more attitude (in my opinion) and much less good reason (not a matter of opinion) go ahead and rant to the teacher about “You’re wrong!” and “That’s illogical!” Here’s where I express my “concern” (i.e. irritation on behalf of the teacher and everyone else around) quite verbally sometimes.** Obviously, this would make the wailing-whiners (that is, afterall, what that activity consists of mostly) quite annoyed with me, and I am sorry (but honestly, get your thoughts together before you speak).
Now, when I have a question or arguable point, I try and take it to the teacher with as much tact as possible, only resorting to muted frustration (at the question, of course) when I really don’t get what’s being said. If I mention something that is debatable, and the teacher shows me where I’m wrong, I’ve got enough wits about me to say a sincere “Thank you” and have a seat contentedly. I don’t mind being wrong if I was wrong. I do mind being wrong without understanding why I was wrong.
The wailing-whiners, understandably, like to take these rare occasions where I ask a question, and capitalize with their own brand of “Look! This guy asks dumb-assed questions too!” which I understand. Of course, I get quite riled up (hence, the rant) when I get this sort of treatment if the questions I’m asking and the reasoning I’m presenting leads to the teacher actually reconsidering their original decision and affirming that I was actually right and it was a misunderstanding.
Here’s where it gets tricky. I’ll admit that it’s probably not the kindest action on my part to call people out for asking stupid questions (i.e. for asking “Where’s your critical thinking?!”) and I know what it’s like to be on the receiving end of those kinds of comments (it’s not particularly fun, but I think it drives the point home very effectively). But again, if my question is valid, and you’re just picking a fight, don’t make a fool of yourself by jumping on whatever scraps come your way, because… well, I’ve no clever way to finish this food analogy up, so I’ll just say it bluntly: you might end up making an ass of yourself. I know I would be (and actually have been, on one or two occasions) if I called a wailing-whiner out erroneously.
I probably sound quite arrogant at the moment, and although that is not intended, it’s a valid interpretation. What I’ve said could be tantamount to “I can ask my questions because they’re important, but your questions are stupid so STFU” but that’s not what I’m getting across (or not). There are clarification questions like “Miss, could you explain again how we tell if a function is odd or even?” Those, even though not entirely useful for the people who already get it, are valid and good questions. There are also questions like “Miss, I got this question wrong, but I don’t know what I did wrong. Can you explain it?” Again, a useful example of question asking. These I am “guilty” of as much as everyone who has ever been completely boggled by derivatives of trigonometric functions for the first time.
And then there are questions like “That doesn’t make sense! How can f’(x) be undefined? That’s impossible. There’s no way to graph it.” Obviously (or perhaps not, but it should be obvious after studying it), an undefined value for f’(x) corresponds to a kink in the graph of f(x). Assuming that what you know and can figure out is all there is and then making statements like “That’s impossible” is really taking arrogance and ignorance to a new level. I’m sure no one would pick on someone who asks how to graph something tricky like that (just one of many examples), but I certainly wouldn’t hesitate to knock someone down a couple notches for saying something like what I’ve paraphrased (yes, this actually happened, and happens).
The bottom line is: critical questions lacking critical thinking, from anyone (myself included), are a great way to tell everyone how little respect you have for your instructors and how much you think of yourself. If you’ve got something to ask, ask it, but don’t be a twit about it. That, and don’t call people (e.g. me) out for asking a stupid question before you’ve actually considered the problem at hand. Unless, of course, you want to look like a ninny, in which case be my guest.
**This usually expresses itself in the form of a quick, high-pitched outburst of “WTF?!” only… I try and keep the last utterance to myself when I can.