I don’t know !
I think, as teachers, this is the last thing that we want to say (or admit).
Imagine you are standing in front of a class of 50 and you have to admit that you don’t know.
But whenever I have said this, three cases emerge:
Case A :
I find out that i am coasting on the job…i am taking things for granted…i am not polishing my skill set. I am not doing riyaaz
Say, I am teaching Optics. There’s a standard formula that is taught_ How to find minimum angle of deviation in a prism? I have been teaching this, year on year, for a decade. It’s a simple proof done using algebra.
But let’s assume that Kid A asks “How to find maximum angle of deviation?”. Or Kid B asks “How can we find the minimum using calculus?”.
Now these questions are so obvious, that if I don’t know the answer — then I have been sleeping on the job !
Either I haven’t gone through new material or I haven’t gone through the existing material with enough curiosity.
Case B :
There’s something that is not very obvious to me. Say, in the above example, Kid C asks “How can we explain this phenomenon using scattering?”
Now this is a Unknown Unknown quadrant for me.
This time when I say, “I don’t know but I’m willing to explore this”, there’s definitely a new world waiting to be explored. A world that will take me to a different level of looking at this particular topic.
This poke was completely unexpected, at least tome. The thread I will start pulling will definitely take me to an entirely new part of the jungle.
Case C.
There are times when circumstances dictate that I don’t know and quite frankly I am not even pursuing the path to know anything more about this particular topic.
Say in the above example, I just don’t have the energy or time to pursue Kid C’s question. I know that it’ll suck me in for a long haul and for me it’s something I need to drop.
Either way, whenever I find myself answer “I don’t know", I like to look closely at the reason of my not knowing.
Usually all teachers are able to give some or the other reply to students at that moment — but what really matters is the honest answer that we give to our selves.
