Need a story on the importance of asking questions

February 11, 2013 6:55 PM

Tomorrow I'm leading a session for college freshmen on the importance of asking questions. The canned curriculum we've been given introduces the session with me reading a story (!) to the students. Unfortunately, the moral of the story seems to be why NOT to ask questions.

Given that I'm expected to have some kind of story, could anyone recommend to me a story that is (a) brief (1-2 minutes to read), (b) not complex, and (c) whose moral is the importance of asking questions?

Thanks!

posted by orrnyereg to education (10 answers total)

Man, with a doofy exercise like this, I think I would start with some version of

"Does your dog bite?"
"No."
* pets dog, dog bites him*
"I thought you said your dog didn't bite!"
"It doesn't. That is not my dog."
posted by jessamyn at 7:13 PM on February 11 [9 favorites]

It's a stretch, but you could adapt the parable of the monkeys to be a lesson in learning to ask why things are the way they are and/or breaking the collective habit of not speaking up in classes.
posted by Monsieur Caution at 7:28 PM on February 11

Stories with Holes: The leader reads a short story with obvious information missing. The students must ask you questions that you can only reply with "yes" or "no" in order to fill in the holes in the story and solve the riddle. There are books you can buy, but if you do a search for "stories with holes" you will get a lot of great examples.

For example you say, "The man was afraid to go home because a man with a mask was there." Students ask you questions, "Was it a robbery?" and "Was anyone hurt?" but can't ask "What was stolen?" They work together to solve the riddle. Really great way to encourage lateral thinking.

Spoiler....




It's a baseball game. :-)
posted by NoraCharles at 7:34 PM on February 11 [2 favorites]

The only story that comes to mind is a Richie Rich story where they have a guest DJ and he gets exhausted from running back and forth to find requested records. It turns out the entire library will move to the exact title/letter of the alphabet you need at the push of a button but they forgot to tell him.

There is a TV tropes page called "You didn't ask." It has a short comic. I don't know if that will help any. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/YouDidntAsk

There are also movie scenes with the "you didn't ask" punchline, but the one that comes immediately to mind is kind of obscure. I think there is a scene like that in one or more of the Terminator movies but I cannot quite put my finger on it. Terminator is pretty well known, so I think that might be a good reference.
posted by Michele in California at 8:34 PM on February 11 [1 favorite]

You could probably use the blind men and an elephant story, which illustrates how your own limited perceptions can lead you astray.
posted by snorkmaiden at 8:36 PM on February 11 [1 favorite]

I know my professors always reinforce the point that "you should ask questions because if you're lost, 10 other people in the class will also be lost." You could start off by giving set of instructions that's easily misinterpret-able, and then asking if people have questions about it - and as the questions pop up, have people raise their hands to indicate if they were wondering the same thing too and/or if the question was helpful?
posted by Conspire at 8:49 PM on February 11 [2 favorites]

This story about the Cattywumpus seems like it could work.
posted by cali59 at 9:05 PM on February 11 [1 favorite]

Three Hasidic tales about questions.
posted by brookeb at 10:36 PM on February 11 [3 favorites]

"He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; he who does not ask a question remains a fool forever." - Chinese proverb
posted by ceribus peribus at 10:48 PM on February 11

Update: Thanks everyone for the ideas. I tried several of them and they seemed to go over well. But it's almost impossible to get students to speak up! Very discouraging, but one soldiers on. At least I have ideas for next year!
posted by orrnyereg at 8:53 PM on February 12