The Ability to Ask Questions

How the Education System Stifles Curiosity and Why It Matters for Future Entrepreneurs and Innovators

Schools have opened. The holiday is over for the kids. But for Aslı and me, the holiday has started. Summer break shouldn't be three months. Yaman is going to third grade, and Zeynep is going to high school.

Both of them used to ask thousands of questions when they were kids. It sometimes annoyed Aslı and me. Now they ask fewer questions. We are relaxed, but I thought about this in terms of entrepreneurship recently. All scientific discoveries, new inventions, and successful companies start with asking questions. Everything happens thanks to entrepreneurs who are uncomfortable with their current situation and question things to find a solution.

Paul Harris, a psychologist at Harvard University, shows in his research that kids between the ages of two and five ask about 40,000 questions in total. Then this number drops quickly.

The education system, not only in Turkey but also around the world, stops kids from asking questions. Zeynep took the LGS (High School Entrance Exam) exam this year. Standardized tests block inquiry-based learning and push students to memorize. When the goal is to find the right choice, asking questions to understand the main reason becomes unwanted in class. Just memorize the formula and apply the same when a similar question comes up. Don't ask questions.

Teachers usually have limited time, and they are expected to finish a certain curriculum within that time. There is no time set aside for different questions asked by students in class. They just teach everything without giving students a chance to ask questions. Teachers do not encourage questioning in class for this reason. You even have to raise your hand, wait your turn, and get permission to ask a question. Asking a question is made so hard that most students hesitate to ask what they wonder.

Wrong answers are punished. Three wrongs erase one right. This makes students scared to ask questions and expose what they don't understand. No one wants to seem dumb for always asking questions in class. The education system should actually teach kids to question and solve problems, but these abilities are dulled within the school system. They lose their natural curiosity and ability to ask questions.

The root of entrepreneurship and innovation is asking the right questions. An entrepreneur identifies a current problem and asks how to solve it better, both to themselves and potential customers. Even the biggest technology companies are founded based on simple questions.

It's not just in business; in many different fields like science, literature, philosophy, and history, the key dynamic is being curious and seeking answers through questions. As we lose our ability to ask questions, our chances of success in these fields also decrease.

During university, I was usually the student sitting at the front and probably asking the most questions. In my interviews with entrepreneurs, I also try to improve my ability to ask questions by asking brand new questions every day. I make an effort to patiently answer the questions Yaman and Zeynep ask me.

E.E. Cummings has a quote I really like: "Always the beautiful answer who asks a more beautiful question."

I recommend reading the books "A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas" by Warren Berger and "Make Just One Change: Teach Students to Ask Their Own Questions" by Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana.

"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day." Einstein