Students should always question what they are taught instead of accepting it passively.Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing a

The research conducted by behavioural scientists in 2004 in Madhya Pradesh, a State in India, concluded that always questioning the teachers led to disobedience in the class and defeated the cardinal purpose of education. The study also highlighted that in the intolerant society such as India, questioning is considered as an opposition to the established order and treated severely by higher authorities of schools. While there is no reservation that always questioning the subjects in a class often leads to make the teacher nervous and anxious and affect the teaching environment of the class, still there are reasons to believe that students should question what they are taught since it provides the opportunity to teachers to prepare well for the forthcoming questions. In the question-answer environment, teachers often work on their skills, subject knowledge and manner of explaining their ideas in order to placate incessant questioning which ultimately enhance the underlying knowledge of a subject.

The first argument that supports the idea of questioning the subjects is that questioning leads to the discovery of ideas. In a class, students have diverse interests and have come from different backgrounds and their way of questioning provides different views to the same thing. The questioning also leads to inculcate the habit of challenging the established theory and finding the gap in the existing studies. A good example of this is the discovery of infinite equation of complex numbers that was discovered by Mr. Ramanujam, the great mathematician of 18th century. His biography revealed that he had a habit of always questioning his mathematics teachers for the proof of the theorems which made his teachers worried. However, his teachers knew that the questions he was raising were genuine and required scrutiny. His life revealed that by incessant questioning of mathematics theories he was able to derive proofs of some of the most complex problems such as infinite series and theory of prime numbers. Therefore, questioning leads to the discovery of new ideas and proofs which guide successive generations to work further.

Further, the final argument that buttresses the idea of questioning is the future of the students that depend on education. By asking questions, students understand the skills, time and diligence required for pursuing a specific subject. Every student does not have a sound financial background and he/she needs to study courses which can provide him/her the opportunity to work and earn early. The field of science and engineering would not be a good option for such a student since these two streams often require four and even more years of study and these fields cost sufficient amount of money. The questioning in this case would provide him/her to match his/her interests and goals with the time and costs involved in the subjects. This can be illustrated by the study that was conducted in 2016 by ASSOCHAM, a NGO in India, to analyse the reason why some students choose commerce or arts over science or engineering. The study concluded that questioning the teachers in classes gave them the idea that field of engineering required four years of study and it also required continuous devotion to which some students were averse to because of their financial background. Hence, questioning the subjects reveals the students which subjects to pursue in their career.

Contrary to the above paragraphs, one idea that argues that questioning is unwarranted is that it leads to chaos and disorder in class. Today, inequality and difference exists everywhere including school education as well. Some schools are treated with high regards while some are considered just fair. In the latter category, teachers are recruited with lenient procedures and teachers are also not from elevated education background. In these schools, questioning the teachers leads to chaos and disorder since they are not well prepared to teach and not well educated to teach but they are the essential element of diverse education system. For instance, the study concluded by Government of Delhi, a federal part of India, concluded that in government-run schools, teachers were selected without being strict adherence to the standards of teaching but it was necessary since these schools catered to the needs of poor sections of the society. Questioning in these schools led 67 per cent of teachers to change their job to a waiter or a cook which led the scarcity of teachers in these school. Hence, questioning leads to undesirable consequences in a country where inequality is widespread.

As can be seen from above paragraphs that while questioning leads to noise and chaos in a situation where there exists a large scale economic differences in the society, questioning also leads to new scientific discovery and provides the direction to students for their future career paths. Therefore, questioning must be encouraged in schools where students are homogeneous in terms of their support and background.