My students ask all sorts of questions. One of the important parts of my job is to be here for the questions they don’t feel they can ask in class. Perhaps they are lacking confidence and don’t want to speak up. Maybe they have forgotten something like the meaning of hyperbole or oxymoron. They might not want to ask that in front of their classmates, but they feel more comfortable asking me.
But the questions are not always directly about English. One of the most sensible questions was from a primary age student before his first session with me: ‘What am I supposed to call her?’ Excellent question. I am always Harriet. I am not a teacher and my sessions are not school. In fact, I try to make them as unlike school as I can. Older students sometimes call me Miss, which feels really odd. I remind them to use my name.
I have also been asked what religion I am, what it was like being a lawyer and what I do when I am not tutoring. All very sensible and understandable questions. I always take them seriously and answer honestly.
Younger students often ask my age. I don’t mind at all. Again, I answer honestly. After all, aren’t we all curious about other people’s ages?
This is the thing: curiosity. It’s vital, and it shouldn’t be discouraged. I want to foster curiosity in my students. If they ask me something I don’t know – about history, for example – I will say, ‘I don’t know, let’s look it up.’ That way, I am nurturing my own curiosity as well as theirs.
Without curiosity, how many inventions would still be uninvented and how many discoveries would still be undiscovered? If we suppress our curiosity, we lose our desire to learn. Surely we don’t want that.
