Now, what's stupid?

another thing that has been haunting me this past 3 days was how a Science teacher whose name I shall not mention ridiculed her student's question.

It was just another normal day for a group of teachers where they just went on and on about how tired they are, how bad the students they taught were when this Science teacher whom I shall name Mrs A for convenience sake, strut into the staff room, while the sound of her pair of high heels clicking away echoed in the staff room. I sat there quietly, doing what I do best - observing. The other teachers on the other hand just continued their gossips as Mrs A inched closer and closer to them to join into their mundane routine.

And with a loud Chinese-accented voice, she let out a big Chinese style sigh.

"Aiyah, you know my class 2*, i've this student called *********, you know what he asked me today?"

The other teachers just waited eagerly for Mrs A to continue rambling.

"He asked me ah, 'Teacher, will the sun collide with the earth?'"

Mrs A gave a sarcastic sigh, belittling this poor student's question, while the other teachers laughed.

I thought for a second, i lost my sense of humour, because I didn't see how that question was funny. In fact, i thought that question was a legitimate, interesting question for the right kind of teacher - a Science teacher! I personally would have asked that question when i was that age.

Yet, none of the teachers saw it that way. They branded it 'stupid'. But hey, Galileo was branded stupid when he said the world is not flat.

But for the matter of teaching, I'd be flattered if I had a student who ask such a well-thought question. To me, there's no such thing as a stupid, intellectual question. And the teacher, no matter how much i respect her, had no right to ridicule this poor student's question.

No wonder our 'creme de la creme' class were a bunch of mutes.

At the same time, I thank God for letting me be exposed to different styles of teaching in my upper secondary years, college years, and my first year of university. If I had another few years under these teachers, it wouldn't matter how knowledgable they were, I would be mute.