Questions about questions

I take asking questions in lecture to be rude for the obvious reason: We go to lecture to hear the professor’s (hopefully) well-crafted synthesis and explication of the course material, and this takes place within a (hopefully) limited time frame. Thus, any questioning detracts from the main purpose of the event. It effectively spends our time without our permission.

Of course, a really good question would contribute to this end, but, in my experience, a minute of lecture is almost always more enlightening than a minute of questions. So, though a few questions do shine — they’re particularly insightful or serve to clear up a point that lots of people were confused about — it seems best to keep questions out of lecture, saving them for precept or for one-on-one interactions with the professor.

It’s important to say that I’m only talking here about the lecture and precept model of courses. This certainly does not apply to seminars, nor to the few courses with only lecture and no precept. In this latter situation especially, I think it’s the professor’s solemn duty to prepare lectures that are amenable to questions. Is the lecture-and-precept model superior? That’s up for debate, but as long as we’re working within it, I stand by the rule: no questions in lecture.

One of my favorite exchanges came in a lecture when “that guy” — same one from above — raised his hand and asked something bizarre, to the effect of, “Could you say that [blah]?” The professor — who, having been turned down for tenure earlier that year, was pretty mentally checked-out — paused to think and then simply said, “No,” and continued lecturing. Students and professors alike enforce this code, and I think it serves a good purpose.

For all of this, though, it’s just as important to remember that asking questions in lecture is simply doing the right thing in the wrong place. I fear that, in creating a culture where questions in lecture are scorned, we have stymied question-asking in other forums as well. And that’s no good. If anything, we don’t ask enough questions.

I think this is why preceptors often say, so emphatically, that there is no such thing as a dumb question. They want to fight any anti-question sentiment and get the students — especially the shy ones — to speak up. Unfortunately, the phrase rings false: We all know that there are dumb questions. Or are there?

Surely there are dumb places to ask questions — e.g., lecture — but what inherent qualities can actually make a question dumb? I’m inclined to think that, while a question can be asked in the wrong place or with the wrong intention, questions themselves are never dumb — only sullied by their circumstances. It’s dumb to ask a question about an article you haven’t read; it’s dumb to ask a question about a discussion you haven’t been paying attention to; it’s dumb to ask a question just to show off. But, as long as a question is in earnest, I think it’s acceptable.

If I’m speaking up in precept because I’m at the end of my own mental capabilities and want some help moving forward, my action is valid. I might be a dumb person asking a question, but, in some sense, we all came to Princeton dumber than we’d like, and the only way to fix this is by asking for help.

I hope I’ve moved toward answering two questions about questions: where and what. The “where” is simple: not lecture. And that’s pretty inclusive. Precept, e-mail, office hours: All are acceptable and, if anything, all are under-utilized. (I think e-mail in particular is neglected, especially as a good way to pose a question and let the ensuing discussion segue into office hours.)

It’s easy enough to find the right “where,” but harder to achieve the right “what.” That’s because a good question must be sincere, and sincerity only comes from effort. If you haven’t put in much work, ask at your own risk. But, if you’ve held up your end of the bargain, ask away. We have certain social norms in place to make things flow more smoothly, but these norms are useless if they keep us from our goals more than they help us along our way.

Greg Burnham is a math major from Memphis, Tenn. He can be reached at gburnham@princeton.edu.