Are you a wise child?

I got an email the other day from a farmer/student, Will. He was working through the homework from our class, had a bunch of questions, and wanted to schedule a coaching session to go through them.

Something troubled me about this request:

• Why couldn’t he just save the questions for the live class? After all, the whole point of the live class was to bring (and ask) questions. Was he shy about asking his questions in class? Was it a fear of “looking stupid” because he had so many?
• If he had questions, then certainly others had questions too. Going through his questions could be a good exercise for the whole class; I didn’t want to cut off the rest of the class from the learning opportunity.

Traditional learning environments (inclass, webinars) can make question-asking intimidating. Some instructors request that questions be held until the end. Or you have to raise your hand, interrupt the whole class, and announce to everyone that you don’t understand something. Will’s desire for a private coaching session rather than ask questions during the live class suggested he, too, was intimidated.

Instructors fear questions, too. If students have too many questions, does it mean you haven’t done your job well?

There was a time when I feared questions. I would question my teaching style, presentation, and explanation of complicated topics. When students had questions, I would take it as my failing and would then spend hours coming up with new ways to present the information.

Certainly, as a teacher, it’s good that I can explain accounting concepts in different ways for different types of learners…. But a student having questions isn’t bad.

In fact, I’ve come to realize it’s good. Now, I am thrilled with questions. Bring ’em!

And I was thrilled that Will had so many! It meant he’d been engaging with the material enough to ask questions.

It reminded me of a Jewish parable.

Goodness, I never thought I’d link my own lessons to something religious, but here we go:

The Passover seder talks about how we should share the story of the Jews’ exodus from Egypt from generation to generation; and it talks about it in the context of four children. Two of the children jumped out at me as I thought about Will’s hesitancy to ask questions.

“The wise child,” as the parable goes, asks detailed questions about the meaning of the customs and rituals of Passover.

“The simple one” can barely form a question and just asks “What is this?”

As I reflected on Will’s questions, I couldn’t help but think about the wise child. The wise child is engaged; they’re internalizing the concepts. Their questions reflect a base understanding and a desire to learn more.

The simple child doesn’t have that base knowledge. They just know they don’t understand.

If a person can’t ask more than a basic question, then it means they don’t yet have the foundational knowledge to dive deeper.

Questions are good! It means you’re thinking and engaged. It means you are wise!

Are you wise? Do you have questions about your business strategy or QuickBooks. Come visit me during speed coaching sessions. You can also listen in to the questions other farmers ask.

In case you’re wondering about the other two children from the Passover parable about the four children:

The “wicked child” asks, “what does this mean to you?”  They ask in a way that distances themselves from the question… perhaps asking to be polite (though that wouldn’t make them wicked) but not really interested.

Finally, the fourth child doesn’t even know how to ask a question.