June 21, 2015
When faced with a problem or presented a question, I like seek out an explanation or look for an answer. As teachers I think we all strive to instill in our students the drive to explore and seek out explanations.
We pose questions in our classrooms and guide students on their road to discovery as they uncover the workings of the world around them. We, as life long learners, also seek to find reasons for things we do not fully understand.
Sometimes the answers to questions are quite obvious. For example: why is the time display on my microwave blinking? The obvious answer is because there was a power outage. The solution is to just reset the clock.
Sometimes we need to dig a bit deeper to find an answer and a solution. Why does the one tire on my car look a little flat? I put some air in and the next day it looks flat again. Is there a leak in the valve? Have I somehow punctured the tire? A trip to the garage reveals a nail in the tire. The solution – have the nail removed and the hole patched.
Then there are those questions that seem to have no logical solution or plausible answer. For example: tho other day the phone rang. I answered with “Hello”. I knew who was the caller was because of caller ID. Instead of replying with “Hello” his response was, “Oh, I didn’t think you would be home.” Now I am perplexed. If you didn’t think I would be home, why call at this time? Did you really want to talk to me voicemail? If you did, I apologize for ruining things by answering. This has happened on more than one occasion. Has anyone else had this happen to them or is it just me? If you have an explanation for this please let me know. This is one mystery I have never been able to figure out.