Of all the techniques, methodologies and other pedagogical effects I employed in my teaching career, nothing beats this one. I called it Question Period, ostensibly named after the same in our Federal House of Commons. I love learning things and am not at all threatened when someone knows more than I do. In fact, the only reason I could have this exercise was because I was able to say the most dreaded words of my profession: “I don’t know.” My students begged other teachers to do Question Period as well, but no one other than me could stomach the idea of not being able to answer a question so they avoided doing what I was doing like the plague.

The public high school in Edmonton where I worked had a rather crazy six-day schedule within a five-day week. This meant that every course had one day where students came to class twice in a day. Believing two classes with me in one day was cruel and unusual punishment, I declared that the second class on the double-class day would start with a ten-minute session where students could ask any question about anything. This came with the caveat that if I did not have the answer, the student posing the question would research the answer and share it with us the next time we had a question period.

Question Period proved to be immensely popular. In fact, students often tried to derail our regular classes by immediately peppering me with questions when Question Period was not scheduled. I also simply could not keep this activity to the ten minutes I allotted. Once started, the students were so enthusiastic they would beg me to continue, promising they would complete the work being replaced with work at home, and they usually did.

Since biology is defined as the study of life, all questions on all topics were acceptable, within a proper level of decorum. Some questions did push some limits, but the students truly wanted answers. To this day, when I meet former students, none of them mentions our “fabulous” biology lessons; what they remember most are the question periods they very much enjoyed.

The lesson here is simple. Encourage your children to ask any and all questions, even at the risk of being embarrassed or made uncomfortable.

Doing so will ensure your children make learning a constant part of their lives and will guarantee that they grow in wisdom with age.