Ask Me No Questions

When in our young lives were we taught that asking questions was improper?  In academia we often say to our students and have been told that "there are no stupid questions."  Yet, no matter what the scenario, questions are still hard to ask.

I think there are a few reasons that I can come up with for why students are afraid of asking questions in academia:  a fear of looking dumb in front of others in a group because you don't understand the concept, knowing that you might not have prepared for class as you should and don't want to ask a question that has already been answered in the reading, or you are afraid of asking a question that you then might have to answer through the socratic method.

Asking questions is hard because it is admitting that I don't have the answers and, at some point in my youth I was taught that admitting you don't know something is wrong.  Now of course this doesn't apply to knowledge that isn't in your field of study/work or knowledge that is not considered "common sense"but, if you have been studying it or if "everyone" knows it than you should know better than to ask about it.

The reason I am on this questionable line of conversation, see what I did there? is because this evening I asked a question of the waitress at dinner and she answered me pretty truthfully.  I asked about a featured dish on the menu (something I rarely do) and she told me that while the dish was good, it was not worth the price.  I found that I was grateful and surprised at her honesty.  I realize that this is a different kind of question than one that is asked in a classroom but humor me.  As a consumer I often find myself suspicious of the answers that I get from sales people who's job is to sale me something. There is no reason why they would tell me the "truth" if the truth is going to result in me not purchasing a product. So, when the waitress told me to save money, I was taken aback.

I also feel that right around the same time we learned that asking questions was wrong, we also were taught that if you happen to be asked a question you should then answer truthfully. It's mixed in there with the whole lying is bad thing. We are manipulated in to revealing our deepest darkest secrets because lying is bad. But we should never be put into a situation where we must reveal our deepest darkest secrets because asking questions is also bad. So really we are safe.

Unless of course a bad person asks us a question. Then we are thereby obligated through the rules of propriety to answer it. And it is always a good idea to tell bad people truths about yourself.

This is where logic gets me.