{"id":22701,"date":"2020-11-06T01:33:03","date_gmt":"2020-11-06T01:33:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=22701"},"modified":"2020-11-09T03:55:25","modified_gmt":"2020-11-09T03:55:25","slug":"why-questions-good-and-bad-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/why-questions-good-and-bad-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"Why questions (good and bad) matter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Marcello Fiocco<\/a>, University of California, Irvine<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Children are naturally inquisitive<\/a> and tolerant<\/a>. Many constantly ask questions. At some point, most of them \u2013 most of us<\/a> \u2013 just stop<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Why does this happen?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not as if the world starts to make perfect sense after several years of living. There are social pressures<\/a> to stop. To succeed, to be recognized as smart<\/a>, children typically feel pressure to stop asking questions and start providing answers. What is 2+2? How do you spell \u201ccat\u201d? What time is it when the big hand is on the 11 and the little hand is on the 5?<\/p>\n

But no one should ever stop asking questions. I say this as someone whose job it is<\/a> to ask them, and to help college-aged students and adolescents develop the skills to ask questions insightfully<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I believe that asking questions should be of the utmost importance to anyone who cares about themselves or others.<\/p>\n

A threat to inquiry<\/h2>\n

During the summer of 2020, on TikTok, a young woman named Gracie Cunningham<\/a> mused about the origins of algebra and about whether math is \u201creal\u201d while applying her makeup. The video went viral when, in a since-deleted tweet, it was posted with the caption \u201cdumbest video ive ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n