Carl%20Sagan%20-%20The%20Demon%20Haunted%20World

No Such Thing as a Dumb Question
what needs to be learned changes quickly, especially in the course
of a single generation, it becomes much harder to know what to
teach and how to teach it. Then, students complain about
relevance; respect for their elders diminishes. Teachers despair at
how educational standards have deteriorated, and how lackadaisical
students have become. In a world in transition, students and
teachers both need to teach themselves one essential skill -
learning how to learn.
Except for children (who don't know enough not to ask the
important questions), few of us spend much time wondering why
Nature is the way it is; where the Cosmos came from, or whether
it was always here; if time will one day flow backward, and effects
precede causes; or whether there are ultimate limits to what
humans can know. There are even children, and I have met some
of them, who want to know what a black hole looks like; what is
the smallest piece of matter; why we remember the past and not
the future; and why there is a Universe.
Every now and then, I'm lucky enough to teach a kindergarten
or first-grade class. Many of these children are natural-born
scientists - although heavy on the wonder side and light on
scepticism. They're curious, intellectually vigorous. Provocative
and insightful questions bubble out of them. They exhibit enormous
enthusiasm. I'm asked follow-up questions. They've never
heard of the notion of a 'dumb question'.
But when I talk to high school seniors, I find something
different. They memorize 'facts'. By and large, though, the joy of
discovery, the life behind those facts, has gone out of them.
They've lost much of the wonder, and gained very little scepticism.
They're worried about asking 'dumb' questions; they're
willing to accept inadequate answers; they don't pose follow-up
questions; the room is awash with sidelong glances to judge,
second-by-second, the approval of their peers. They come to class
with their questions written out on pieces of paper, which they
surreptitiously examine, waiting their turn and oblivious of whatever
discussion their peers are at this moment engaged in.
Something has happened between first and twelfth grade, and
it's not just puberty. I'd guess that it's partly peer pressure not to
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