Better to Question Than to Answer

Last updated on: July 8, 2009 at 12:27 pm by David Hayward

Better to Question Than to Answer 2009-07-08T12:27:32-04:00 David Hayward

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Is it more important to teach people how to answer or how to question? Is it more important to teach people what to believe or to help others learn how to think for themselves? I receive a lot of pressure to conform to the status quo’s way of thinking. But I also get a lot of pressure to teach the status quo. We feel so much more comfortable and secure when our brains are not challenged. It is upsetting to have our way of thinking upset, so we resist it at all costs. If something does upset our thinking, we find a way to quickly adapt the new information to fit into how we already think. We learn how to acquire new bits of information and integrate it into what we already know so that nothing is really disturbed all that much and we can get on with our lives as usual, or maybe improved.

So, can we teach and listen in such a way that we learn how to question? Can we be a part of a community that dares to explore, question, research and challenge all the ways we have been conditioned to believe and all the ways we are presently being conditioned to believe? Is it possible that it is not in receiving answers, but in questioning everything, that one learns what is true and is changed? When I teach, is it possible for me to help people recognize the freedom they have to question everything, and, in that questioning, realize they are closer to what is true than ever before? For my own children, for instance, I hope they acquire questioning, challenging and discerning minds, not certain, submissive, dull and programmed ones.

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