A Matter of Health

Questions without answers

By Ruth SoRelle, M.P.H.

Recently, I was talking to a young woman about why she dropped out of high school and got her GED instead.

She was bright, studious and recently graduated from college and considering which course of study to pursue in graduate school. Why would someone like that choose to leave high school?

It turns out she had one deficiency – she asked questions. They were not questions about the teacher's physique or his/her mannerisms, income or other personal matters. She asked questions about the subject of the class.

In an era of "no child left behind" and test-taking, her questions stopped the teacher's relentless march forward. She did not say, but I have a feeling that her questions were not of the "what, who, when or where" variety. They were more likely "how" and "why."

Understanding how and why is at the crux of knowledge, but in a data-laden society, they frequently go unanswered. Yet, how and why are the fulcrums on which science is balanced, and perhaps it is that reluctance of schools today to address how and why that may explain why our youngsters are falling behind in mathematics, science and engineering.

I grew up in the post-Sputnik era, when the nation's educators realized that understanding "how" and "why" things happened would inform the advances of the next generations. I went to school lumped together with a group of very bright youngsters whose parents and teachers both encouraged them to ask questions.

In fact, I remember many lunch hours during which we struggled to come up with questions our teachers could not answer. And sometimes we succeeded.

However, unlike the young woman whose questions forced her out of school, we triumphed when we stumped our teachers. None of them took it as an affront or a demonstration that they lacked something. Instead, they knew that they had succeeded when their students asked questions that exceeded their own knowledge.

Then, demonstrating that they were indeed educators, they put us on the road to answering those questions ourselves. With the tables turned, we struggled in the libraries, sought out the experts and did our own experiments. Sometimes we answered the questions. Sometimes we failed.

No matter the outcome, we learned. We loved school. And, we realized at a recent reunion, we loved our teachers who taught us so much. Not the least of what they taught us was that it is no crime not to know. It is a shame, however, when you don't try to find the answer.