{"id":6471,"date":"2021-01-21T14:44:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-21T13:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ver-ooginoog.nl\/bibliotheek\/you-can-learn-from-questions\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T15:59:30","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T13:59:30","slug":"you-can-learn-from-questions","status":"publish","type":"library_pt","link":"https:\/\/ver-ooginoog.nl\/en\/library\/kolommen\/you-can-learn-from-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"You can learn from questions"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-post-date\"><time datetime=\"2021-01-21T14:44:00+01:00\">21 January 2021<\/time><\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Don&#8217;t get me wrong. It&#8217;s not that the child asking the question is embarrassing\u2014it&#8217;s the fact that the mother dragged the child away. If she had given the child the chance to ask me the question, I would have explained that I had surgery, that my eye couldn\u2019t be fixed, and that I now have a prosthetic eye. Then it would have been clear to the child and any adults who might have been listening.   <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A child keeps looking at you when they see \u201csomething special\u201d because they want to know what they\u2019re seeing. Parents say, \u201cDon\u2019t \u2018stare\u2019 like that\u2014it\u2019s not polite.\u201d I\u2019d call it studying. My little nephew Charlie was a few months old when he was studying my face and suddenly started squinting really hard. Charlie\u2019s father was standing behind me and got a little panicked because his son was squinting so much. I<br \/>had to laugh because I\u2019d noticed before that children often squint when they look at me. The child focuses his or her gaze\u2014and thus their attention\u2014solely on my \u201cgood, moving eye.\u201d The other, still eye doesn\u2019t participate and is probably not interesting to look at.       <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tommy\u2014my daughter\u2019s little dog\u2014also looks at me with a pleading expression and then suddenly shifts his gaze to just one of my eyes. It\u2019s really strange and also funny to see! Maan\u2014my 7-month-old granddaughter\u2014is now carefully studying everything she sees, including faces. The amazing thing is that Maan doesn\u2019t look at the moving eye at all, but at the still, fake eye instead. She stares at it with a questioning look that seems to say, \u201cHey, why aren\u2019t you joining in?\u201d I sincerely hope she\u2019ll ask that question once she can talk.     <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Wait a minute!<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Eight-year-old Lotte was staying with her grandparents when I came to visit. I could tell Lotte wasn\u2019t sure how to look at me. She\u2019d occasionally wink at me, probably because I did the same<br \/>. But Lotte didn\u2019t ask any questions. When I was about to leave, Grandpa walked me to the car to help me drive through the rather narrow gate at the driveway exit. I had just started the car when I heard Grandma call out, \u201cWait a minute!\u201d She came running over with Lotte because Lotte wanted to take a good look at my eye. She had noticed something was off, but it was confirmed because Grandpa had to help me see as I was driving away. Grandma was wise enough to pay attention to that. I turned off the engine again and took off my glasses so Lotte could see the prosthesis clearly. I told her the short, kid-friendly version. Lotte nodded that she understood and sighed with relief that she got it. I found it really touching!  <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Do you wear a prosthesis?<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Adults usually don\u2019t ask questions, but they do look searchingly at your face, trying to figure out what\u2019s wrong. But sometimes they do ask. I find that surprising. For example, someone recently asked me, \u201cAre you wearing a prosthesis?\u201d My response was, \u201cYes, and how interesting that you\u2019d ask!\u201d He told me that his wife also has an epithesis and that she\u2019d prefer it if people asked about it rather than just staring. Well, because asking questions is how you learn! Needless to say, I completely agree with her!       <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Anita Hol-Bubeck<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I encourage my students to ask questions right away if something isn\u2019t clear. By asking questions\u2014and, of course, getting answers to those questions\u2014you can learn! So it\u2019s actually pretty strange that parents discourage their children from asking questions. \u201cMom, what\u2019s wrong with that lady\u2019s eye?\u201d Mom whispers, \u201cYou\u2019re not supposed to ask that\u2014just keep walking.\u201d \u201cBut Mom, what\u2019s wrong with her, then?\u201d Then Mom drags the child away from me. It\u2019s actually a little embarrassing.      <\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":5288,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_daextauttol_enable_tooltips":""},"library_cat":[112],"class_list":["post-6471","library_pt","type-library_pt","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","library_cat-kolommen"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ver-ooginoog.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/library_pt\/6471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ver-ooginoog.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/library_pt"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ver-ooginoog.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/library_pt"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ver-ooginoog.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ver-ooginoog.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"library_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ver-ooginoog.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/library_cat?post=6471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}