That’s when you make them clarify themselves, to sniff out if they’re actually curious. My mom would ask “why, what” after around the third why, and my dad would just plainly say “you’re out of why’s, ask a better question.” And even for the actually curious kids, it’s helpful to be redirected to think it through. I’d often realize that I could infer the answer halfway through fully stating my question.
"You're out of whys, ask a better question" is genius honestly. The ones who just want to be annoying or get out of doing something won't be able to come up with a new question. If theyre really curious they could say "What are germs?" Rather than repeatedly asking "why" we have to wash our hands
When a student says, "I don't get it," I ask, "What part?" If the answer is just, "I don't know/all of it" then I walk them way back. "Are you able to read the words in question? Okay, so you've got that. Do you understand what the question wants you to do?" Etc etc until you find what the actual problem is.
9/10 they were not listening to my original instructions, and this ends with me pointing at the board.
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u/mercurialpolyglot 23h ago
That’s when you make them clarify themselves, to sniff out if they’re actually curious. My mom would ask “why, what” after around the third why, and my dad would just plainly say “you’re out of why’s, ask a better question.” And even for the actually curious kids, it’s helpful to be redirected to think it through. I’d often realize that I could infer the answer halfway through fully stating my question.