How We Ask Questions Matters

The failure of Samuel Bronston’s The Fall of the Roman Empire led him to declare bankruptcy.

I suppose I’m not the only academic who believes that students who ask interesting questions display more promise that those who don’t. One of the qualities of good teaching is to try to get our students to challenge what they read and hear — sometimes to even challenge what we tell them in class, as long as their questions are unambiguous and pertinent.

It’s relatively easy for teachers’ questions ...