Question?

I wonder if you have noticed around you that small children are the ones who question too much. It’s simple because they are too inquisitive about things they see around them and hence they question. Some careful observation should also reveal that they sometimes question the well established stereotypes. What happens to children who questions too much? In all likelihood, the child will end up getting a good thrashing from either the teacher or her parents for being too “naughty” or “argumentative” or “undisciplined”. What is worth looking at is that it is not the case that the children are “undisciplined” or “argumentative” but that either the parent or teacher does not know the answer to the question or they find the question against the established social norms. I remember myself being told to be respectful towards my elders and just accept whatever they say because “elders are always right”. That’s so laughable. Why should they be right? Aren’t they not humans? And if they know everything they shouldn’t all of them be awarded the nobel prize? According to me, one who is scared of answering questions is one who’s wrong. You do not have to know the answer to each and every question, no one does but at least one can accept that. But instead they’ll accuse the child of sin. I mean lots of times it is so funny to listen a school teacher telling his student that she’s wrong and the teacher wont give any reason but that “the book” and the teacher himself has to know more by some rule of Heaven. It’s simply insane. What happens over time is that they end up killing the spirit of questioning in the child without realising the gravity of the crime they themselves are committing.

The ability to question is the key to innovation. It is a sad story that today in India research and innovation is way below world standards. And somewhere very intricately, the fact that we do not have the ability to question is responsible for it. Just to put things in perspective: look at the following graph.

Source: SCImago. (2007). SJR — SCImago Journal & Country Rank.
Retrieved April 29, 2010, from http://www.scimagojr.com

The Indian contribution to world research journals is way below that of the United States. Further, as of 2008 China’s contribution was more than four times that of India. Except TIFR and IISc can you tell if there are any world reputed research institutes in India? The IITs have been around for almost 6 decades now, are world renowned for training engineers but still have not been able to establish themselves as world class research institutes. I do not agree that money is the only factor. You might requires huge sums of money for research in sciences but in social sciences there is apt funding in this country. Yet according to Prof. Debraj Ray (from the New York University, who heads its PhD admissions committee and whom I’ve happened to meet personally), the general perception abroad is that Indians are very well trained but not good researchers. I’d leave it upto you to introspect the reason.

We feel proud at having disciplined children. Children who talk too much and ask too many questions, question which we feel they “should not” be asking, who refuse to accept our “orders” are immediately out-casted. Please introspect and realise that we are doing them and ourselves great harm. We are killing creativity. We are stopping development of new inventions which might change the world. Imagine if no one had raised their voice against “Sati”. Today we know that it’s a crime but back then it was “respect”. Times have changes yet our idea of “respect” has not changed. Questioning anything can do no harm. All that can happen is filtration of baseless concepts. “Elders” should realize that it will not make them any less if they “accept” that they do not know something and encourage their children to find what they are looking for. And it’s a fact, no one knows “everything”. And it is no good to become dictators and judges of your children and students. Let them question you. If you know everything and are “always right”, what are you afraid of?