Teachers, What was the DUMBEST QUESTION a Student Ever Asked You? - Reddit Podcast

[@uselesscause3178]

My eldest child told the kids in his 1st or 2nd grade class he was from the third planet from the sun. They didn't believe him but asked the teacher, who agreed. A lot of kids were convinced for quite a while they were going to school with an alien.

[@Robert08010]

Did you have him tested? That's a real life "Sheldon" moment right there.

[@uselesscause3178]

​@@Robert08010 I did not. He was not what teachers wanted. He questioned everyone, everything, all the time. Loudly. Persistently. He is in his 40's now and has some code of his patented. So, you are probably right. I should have and the schools should have offered.

[@DinoRicky]

@@uselesscause3178tbh you kinda…… Not in your youth But still cool you still use youtube

[@uselesscause3178]

@@DinoRicky My parents are in their 90's and love YT. I still miss BBS's and installing hardware long before plug and pray. Not in my youth? I am as old as Thyme and dang thrilled about it.

[@theswclan1914]

@@uselesscause3178that’s the best way reply I have heard in a long time, thank you.

[@danielgoodrich264]

To quote my late grandmother "There are no stupid questions only stupid people."

[@TheTooBig]

I have heard it phrased as "there are no stupd questions, only stupid answers"

[@Vinemaple]

You can't fix stupid, or as we used to say in World of Warcraft, you can't heal stupid.

[@ViolosD2I]

@@TheTooBig There are no stupid questions, but there are curious idiots.

[@larry01902]

​@@Vinemaplebut stupid can become famous/infamous; look at Leeeeeeeeeeeroy Jennnnnnkins.

[@Chuuyas_FancyHat]

What a wise woman.

[@TimeLady8]

My son's favorite story is from high school. A girl in his class was always asking dumb questions. One day the teacher had it and when she asked what something meant, he put a dictionary on her desk. When she asked how to spell the word, she was told, with a P. She then went on to ask, "How do you spell P?" Yes, she asked how to spell the letter P. Everyone in class turned to stare at her. The teacher paused for several seconds and then went on with class.

[@AnimeKat8849]

I'd probably quit on the spot otherwise I might commit a felony (I'm not fit for teaching at all... Yet again I'm pretty sure you'd need Buddha or some diety to deal with that)

[@ukitkatcello6306]

Ngl I knew someone who would do that and you would never be able to tell if they were asking just to mess with you or they genuinely didn’t know

[@roxaskinghearts]

the internet as we know it came out in 2000 or 1960 the only math you will ever use is addition and multiplication never division or beyond vegans die from sugar and other things because they dont like the taste and struggle with a balanced diet people also die from steak and egg meals when you are not baki's

[@Vinemaple]

I've theorized that some people never bother to learn how to figure things out for themselves, but just expect everyone to explain everything to them. And when you encourage them to work it out for themselves, they will always pick the stupidest possible answer, in the hopes that you will never ever force them to use their own brains ever again. And then there are girls who have been taught, accidentally or on purpose, that men only find stupid women attractive. Went to high school with one of those. She was sharp enough that I almost missed it. I wish I'd encouraged her to join the drama club!

[@anvilsvs]

Ah, you can't fix stupid.

[@Lightfyre281]

“Are hyenas real or just some made up creatures from The Lion King?” This was asked by a girl in my genetics lab in college.

[@lenee8959]

😬😂

[@cute_protogen]

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@AnimsOfTheAnims]

💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀

[@WolverinePlayz2003]

😂

[@Infact77]

bro 🤣

[@samsimington5563]

"What are those pyramid shaped things in Egypt called?" They literally answered their own question 😂

[@valenciageode25]

That’s like the spoken version of using your phone flashlight to find your phone.

[@samsimington5563]

@@valenciageode25 Yeah or finding your car by accidentally pressing the panic button on the key fob

[@raybonilla1506]

their formal name is, "the pyramids of Giza" not really a stupid question, just asking for specification.

[@samsimington5563]

@@raybonilla1506 Exactly, that's what makes it funny, not dumb 😂

[@Xeorboom]

The Great Pyramids Of Giza

[@yuaria5524]

The kid who thought that George from _Of Mice and Men_ was a mouse had me dyin'

[@jaysw9585]

When i was in high school, we were doing a crossword puzzle for an assignment, when I asked if we had a thesaurus, my 16 year old sister asked, "why do you need a dinosaur?"

[@DragonMaster1818]

I’m stupid so that sounds like something I would say, albeit half jokingly

[@Goldhook420]

student: can i drink this? chemistry teacher: the solution is bright blue with a hazardous label on it. me: *takes a sip from my cool blue Gatorade*

[@StuartR.]

I can top this. We were reviewing rocks and came to limestone. One kid asked if there were limes in limestone, then if there were lemonstones.

[@aLittlebbean]

That's mind blowing

[@sybsygstgstsgysg5330]

Ain’t no way he wasn’t trying to be funny

[@lottipenta462]

What grade? I can imagine this at 1st or 2nd grade maybe...

[@StuartR.]

@@lottipenta462 like the week before summer in 8th grade

[@lottipenta462]

@@StuartR. (>-

[@duggggggg]

I had a classmates ask our Spanish teacher (this was our 3rd year of voluntary Spanish, we had like 3 people including her) if we were learning Mexican or Spanish. You could tell by the look in her eyes she was dead serious. Teacher had just started explaining the differences in Spanish from different regions

[@Vinemaple]

Ahh, that's just ignorant. At least, the first time.

[@davidhomer78]

I knew people in Texas from South America that insisted that Mexicans did not speak Spanish. There are a lot of differences. I can hardly understand people from Liverpool at all but they call it English.

[@uselesscause3178]

​@@davidhomer78 In Florida. Can Confirm. In the South we have expressions that a Mid-Western might not know and vice-versa. Additionally words can be added or change meanings. In Florida coke is all soda. One gent I knew asked me for a Bas-cart. I use cart or buggy for the same object. Our accents hold longer on certain vowels and certain geographical areas add an r sound to words. "Warsh vs Wash" is one example. Mexico Spanish is Spain Spanish, but with a cultural dialect all it's own.

[@jaredlittleford1217]

Spanish is well on its way to becoming nine different languages.

[@melissaharris3890]

I laughed at the thought of living in a shelter made of stacked buffalos

[@BisonTexas]

They are bison

[@dudono1744]

Average minecraft void base

[@arianebolt1575]

Where's that map with an impenetrable wall of swine?

[@5Demona5]

My favorite one 😂😂😂 "It means you can't ha- oooooh" 😂😂😂

[@nullhazard7569]

At least that student realized they were wrong.

[@StuartR.]

A kid was hammering in a screw with the back of a screwdriver

[@bananaking1003]

It would work to an extent

[@StuartR.]

@@bananaking1003 yeah

[@w.reidripley1968]

Somebody evilly asks, "Kid, do you eat French fries with a spoon?"

[@jcellwood]

In England, people from Birmingham (in the West Midlands, not Alabama) are generally regarded as amazingly unintelligent. To be fair, it's the accent that makes them tend to sound as ill-educated as anything, although there's enough smoke to believe there's a fire. For an example of a mild Brummie accent, Neville Longbottom is your guy. Anyway, you can refer to a hammer as a Brummie screwdriver.

[@richardvoogd705]

Back when I was about 12, more years ago than I care to remember, I faced a question in a test, how is the city council financed? I experienced brain freeze, and answered, with money.

[@Vinemaple]

Not stupid, really. Question's kind of open-ended and vague.

[@nullhazard7569]

You're not wrong.

[@eggyt1153]

No no, he’s got a point

[@christophercastaneda9714]

Another student in one of my college microbiology classes: “If it’s an STD, how does it get in the throat?” Maybe more if a naive question than a stupid question.

[@StephanieMT]

Since a lot of people arent taught sex education that can be understood as to why they asked that question

[@MarsJenkar]

Story #11: Good on the OP for making the student part of that day's ten thousand. Story #17: I think you mean "oscillate". And _that_ depends on the fan. Story #19: Given how many superhero origin stories play fast and loose with science, I wouldn't be surprised if that was used in an origin story at some point. Story #37: Good on the OP here for doing their best to make their students part of that day's ten thousand. Story #43: Kids that young are very literal-minded. You really have to be specific. Story #47: Given how many exotic-colored beverages exist in the world, a bright blue beverage is hardly a novelty these days. (Heck, it wasn't a novelty even when I went to school, and I graduated from college nearly twenty years ago.) I'd emphasize the hazard label when telling them that no, you can't drink that.

[@lycantabris]

#19 - This was used in the Twilight saga. Specifically in Breaking Dawn to explain the werewolves and half-vampires.

[@MaryAbbott-k6k]

The teacher knew it was “oscillate;”Ovulate” was the student’s mistake.

[@j.p3289]

I get the xkcd reference!

[@dx243_]

every single number here is a prime lol

[@HannahSiemer]

Not the extra chromosome part, but the fact that superheroes are biologically different from normal people, an anime who’s abbreviation is MHA, or my hero academia. Those with quirks have certain very subtle biological differences to ““ normal people. Except for the funky thing with Dick’s quirk, where it cannot be inherited, it must be passed down, as in, all Mike can give DeCoud his quirk because of the way that it is passed down, more like a family, heirloom, and less like age genetic trait. They do talk about genetic traits in anime, I love it for it, along with, many other things. I generally only watch anime when I’m sitting stuck in the hospital on IV and I’m bored of my mind and can’t sleep. Tell me, who is getting any sleep in the hospital if you’re not either a: dead B: Como C: or D: only a few hours to a few months old? As for the Gatorade, one, find details, people, find details. If we’re making a lab and it’s in a flask and a lab, and it’s in those glass speakers/flasks and a chem lab, 99 times have 100 you’re not eating it or drinking it.

[@kalebdumez4695]

This was a question asked to my twin sister and me by our French teacher in high school. He asked us who named us. I replied with “Our parents.” The whole class laughed. As soon as he realized what he said, he admitted it was a stupid question.

[@LatedawnsandEarlysunsets]

We were in Social Studies learning about the Bubonic Plague and there was a painting showing skeletons picking up the dead (to signify that if you were picking up the dead you were already dead). A girl raised her hand and asked if skeletons were real back then 😭

[@Vinemaple]

In her defense, she might have been confused by seeing a medieval painting that showed something that wasn't real.

[@LatedawnsandEarlysunsets]

@Vinemaple yeah, probably :)

[@creepyone3348]

No, back then people slithered like snakes

[@ferretqueen2908]

Did she think humans were giant earthworms back then or something?

[@ferretqueen2908]

​@@creepyone3348 can't be a snake without a skeleton

[@AlexG3Z]

So, here's some things I remember from my time in school: "where's south africa located?" "what's pinguins made of? are they made of fish?" "is China the capital of Russia or what's the deal with 'China'?"

[@btf_flotsam478]

Classic American geography.

[@WolfBravery]

Someone in my class, after a child prodigy came to our class, asked our teacher "are you in love with her?" To be clear, he wasnt seen in that classroom the rest of the week

[@zacharyriley4561]

One time I was laughed at when I corrected a boy who was reading aloud to the class about WW2 and said WW Eleven. More than half the class thought I was dumb and that there had been at least 11 World Wars.

[@channel_._.]

American moment

[@w.reidripley1968]

Thought that way for a little while myself when I was a sprout and we got a series of history books... before I was quite au courant with Roman numerals. "Okay, World War I, that's obvious (and I'd heard of world wars), but then they skip to Eleven? Didn't the others even rate?" So Dad explained.

[@MsGbergh]

He is probably a narrator for Reddit stories now. They can't tell by context if R-E-A-D is pronounced to 'red' or 'reed'. Another word that jars is 'cow worker' . Do they (or their programmers) get their education from the 'Cow-op?'

[@jerryrose2083]

Actually more like nine, give or take one or two, depending on who is doing the counting. Our French and Indian War was a part of the real First World War, While the Cold War was usually number 10 or 9, depending on who is doing the count. Offhand, I can’t think of any other group who numbers World Wars quite like we English speakers do.

[@w.reidripley1968]

@@jerryrose2083 France comes pretty close, figuring as heavily in WW1 and WW2 as they did. Perhaps it's a downside of having an empire, a/k/a imperialism? Both wars had empires slugging it out. You can even count in Italy. And this may be why imperialism got the bad name it now has and then didn't.

[@lomax343]

The correct answer to "Can I drink this?" is "Yes, but only once."

[@manumathews7221]

Way back in 97, a guy was not paying enough attention to our science teacher.. she made him stand up after about 15 minutes into the chapter, and asked him the name of the chapter.. and he confidently replied 'magnesium', and the expression on the face of our teacher was priceless.. bcoz it was actually 'magnetism'.. one of my most memorable moments in school 😁

[@rosiefay7283]

Slip of the tongue, perhaps?

[@manumathews7221]

@@rosiefay7283 hehe.. thank you so much for reading 🙏 you just won't believe in some of the incidents that happen here! It's truly other worldly 😁 on one extreme, there are these highly intelligent students and teachers; and on the other, there are some of us, who got some deep mystical knowledge about things :) just somewhere around the same year, i remember one of our English teachers explaining a poem, which had a line that went something like 'T is my forefather's hand'.. the poem was about a 'tree', or atleast something similar! Just try and guess what explanation she gave for that 'T' in the beginning of that line! She went on, saying 'T' is a T-shaped wooden walking stick used by old people 🤯 she looked so confident that even i started doubting myself :) dunno why i didn't stop her, or ask her about it! Finally, she was humble enough to admit her fault, and to explain it correctly to the whole class, when we had an exam, later.. Bcoz, I explained it correctly in my answer sheet.. she also told the class, that someone has written it correctly, and asked if he/she could stand up.. and just like before, I didn't.. 😊 thanks a lot, for reading such a long comment 🙏

[@verticalsmurf]

I'm Australian. We have first nations people who are dark as the night. My Uncle used to play with hide and seek with the lights out for fun and it gave him an edge. Touch his foot and you'd found him. Great fun! He had a weakness though that he would giggle and smile while we were searching for him and his teeth lit up in the moonlight. It was a giveaway. I was walking down the street one day with my darker cousin and an American tourist stopped and asked us how we were related. I said he was my cousin. American congratulated him on how well he had picked up the Aussie accent. We were confused. The guy then went on to explain how all black people who weren't living in Africa were African American and that my cousin was clearly of African American origin. I sat and listened as my cousin gave him a lesson about black being a skin colour due to exposure to the sun and evolutionary trait, and that he was actually not that dark (my Aunt - his Mum - is white). American looked confused and walked away shaking his head.

[@patrickporter6536]

An American once told me that all blacks in Africa live in Soweto. Me, a white South African. He was also surprised that I work in Soweto three or four times a month.

[@AOSMAKAKMS]

Sounds like an American dumb made up story

[@HannahSiemer]

Because we humans are just one species, we just look darker or lighter, depending upon where we live. This is why I will not call biological anthropology, the common name by which it is known to most of the scientific and non-scientific communities, which is physical anthropology. It dates back to anthropologies origins, but it’s modern origins, we were using people skulls to measure what “race “they were and it all goes into the eugenics movement, were essentially dog breeding humans. It was not pretty. However, if you want to talk about race, go play an average round of DND, you’ll find at least three running Around. And we don’t like each other. Correction, we don’t always like each other, sometimes we do,

[@Dallas-Nyberg]

Ah yes, the illogical mindset of some people is hard to fathom... For example.... A number of years ago, one Sunday morning, a group of us were sitting around, discussing a movie we went to see the night before. After a few minutes, a sister of one of the group came in and asked what we were talking about... I replied, "The movie we went to see last night, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind". Without a second thought she then said... "Oh Yeah.. I was going to see that, but it wouldn't make any sense to me...I've never seen the first two."

[@CharlieGosh]

Once had a fellow high-school student straight-faced ask our teacher, "If these hippies want grass, why don't they just mow their lawn?"

[@MsGbergh]

How blessed! A high-schooler who has no experience of recreational and possibly illegal drugs! He might know cannabis by other names though.

[@jordanenby9734]

One time I asked my teacher "What hand do you use the right hand rule with?" This was junior year in high school physics class. I got put in a school out-of-context newspaper article. Luckily I was anonymous, but I felt so dumb.

[@TellyKNetic]

We had a similar difficulty in my physics class. Guy behind me asks, "So, how am I supposed to do this?" He doesn't have a right hand.

[@GymbalLock]

7:55 I get questions like that all the time. After reading a story about shipwrecked pirates, a students asked, "why don't they just call for help on their cell phones?"

[@futurehistoryarchaeologist4480]

There's an interesting video I watched on the topic regarding the use of instantaneous long distance communication in the fantasy and sci fi genres (Not exactly the same thing since it sounds like yours is historical fiction or contemporary fiction from a previous point in history). Even in settings where magic or advanced technology can hypothetically accomplish it, you never really saw it being used until the invention of cell phones. You saw it rarely after phones in general where invented, but cell phones forever changed how we view and engage with the world around us. For better or worse, everyone can be in constant contact with anyone else they know as well as public services and emergency lines. I was born in the 90's and growing up, cell phones were around but not everyone had one. Kids with phones weren't necessarily rare, but not everyone had one. So people not being able to reach out for help in a bad situation isn't something foreign to me. But it makes some degree of sense that younger generations who were born into the world of constant communication would struggle to think of a world without it. Obviously it's a silly mistake to make but it's not one I couldn't understand.

[@Vinemaple]

Because magic hadn't been invented yet

[@Fuzz32]

“It’s a shame that stupidity isn’t painful.” -Old Key Chain

[@RM-mv5yz]

I once was an instructor training new prison officers, and one of the sections that was presented was on cultural awareness and dealing with diverse populations. In one section we were looking at Native Americans and some of the cultural issues that arise when dealing with these individuals, when a female trainee raised her hand and asked "Native Americans are not from the USA are they?" I admit I just stopped as my brain short circuited for a few seconds before answering the question.

[@tunedfox1698]

Here in Italy a thing to ask kids is: “ what was the color of napoleon’s white horse?” And usually they get confused and say a random color.

[@chromxrobinandcorrinxcamil9031]

The first story clearly is a prime example of why humanity is a failure.

[@vilstef6988]

In story 31, I'm wondering how many literalists whizzed in their water bottles.

[@Facetiously.Esoteric]

I wondered the same.

[@Chuuyas_FancyHat]

LMFAO THE OF MICE AND MEN ONE- I’M DYING- I JUST FINISHED THAT BOOK RECENTLY FOR MY CLASS-

[@Lenovo15477]

So in my school, if you don't join band or anything you have this thing called music exploration. We had to name instruments and stuff and the teacher told us to name a string instrument. A kid raised his hand and said, "ohhh... I forget what they're called... they're made of like rock-" the teacher cut him off and said "electric guitar?"

[@michellecoleman5577]

teacher: Ok, everyone answer questions 1 through 5 on page 88. student: What page? teacher: 88 other student: do we do all 10 questions? teacher: no, you only have to do 1 through 5. 3rd student: what page was that? teacher: page 88 4th student: I don't see the questions teacher: they start near the bottom. 5th student: what page are we on? me (already reading first question and getting distracted internally screaming) "I am going to slap every one of you all the way to Mars! That was literally every day of grades 6-12 in one class or another.

[@dianef4227]

I think I taught the same students

[@anvilsvs]

@@dianef4227 I think they're my mayor and city council.

[@dawnvalentine74]

@@dianef4227me too!

[@MsGbergh]

I am over 60, and live in England. We did not get sex education until year 10, which at the time was the last year of compulsory schooling. By then, almost all of us knew how babies were made. We joked about the boys sitting separately from the girls, 'so no-one could do what they saw in the film.' Oral sex was not mentioned, either by the teacher or students. We were not taught how to do taxes either, but it's never been a problem as I have always been on 'Pay as you earn.'

[@lewdogzombies]

A good teacher always says that there are no stupid questions And they’re all liars 😂

[@mwaldyke]

My favorite: “Will we be doing anything important after the break?” I always want to say (but don’t), “No, I was pretty much going to waste the next hour. You might as well leave now.” I teach college chemistry, and the lecture sessions are 2 or 3 hours long, so we have mid-lecture breaks.

[@rviolinfiddle55]

Carl Sagan made an important observation that during early years, children are loaded with questions. They have incredibly inquisitive minds and want to figure things out. Then something terrible happens around the transition into middle school, and kids stop asking questions and let their minds be dull. This is a horrifying thing. Did it ever occur to anyone that one possible explanation for this is because so many teachers label certain questions as "dumb" when they possibly mean "maybe not relevant to what we're talking about" etc. and simply are too busy to satisfy an inquisitive mind or someone from a different culture? If you let your child stop being inquisitive, (does not matter how obvious or out of context it might appear to you), you have failed as a mentor and educator and are contributing to the decline of our future. There are NO dumb questions. Ever. End of statement.

[@jm7781]

Once, a student asked me if killing people was a crime.

[@maggiemccrimmon7181]

I had a classmate ask during a geography class why the water wasn't falling off the earth. We were in 8th grade. My teacher was so confused that he had to draw what the student was thinking. The class was in shock by the confusion this student had.

[@Robert08010]

His parent's might have been flat earthers.

[@rollinolson3562]

Lots of adults are confused about this. Look at any globe, and you can see why. Globes don't indicate that *down* is at the center.

[@un-lady-like]

My life long gal pals and I still laugh about this one.... In high-school, while we were discussing concentration camps and the holocaust, one of the cheerleaders asked this gem.... " So does that mean that the Nazis killed everyone named Julie (jew-lee 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️)? Another that my husband told me about one of his high-school class mates... The question asked was, "what is the natural state of ice?" Answer from a girl in the class, "Alaska?" 😂😂😂😂

[@paulavitoria1798]

I'm a Portuguese history teatcher and when I was teatching how the King and the Royal Family (and most of the nobility) had to escape to Brasil to prevent napoleonic invading troops from ousting him of power and replace him with a new king (as Napoleon did in many other European countries), boarding ships and enduring a voyage of months, one of the students asked why didn't they take a plane. Honestly, I blame modern child's lit. I know for a fact that no one in school taught me there were no planes in that time (the early 1800's). But I read so many stories with kings and queens, princesses and princes, that I came to understand that their means of transport were either motioned by animals, to travel by land, or by wind, to travel by sea. Modern child's lit (I say modern, but I believe it's been happening for 50+ years - yes, I'm THAT old!) deals mostly (almost always) with present day events and ways of life, so children know nothing of the past (meaning they have no notion of time).

[@MsGbergh]

The Bible mentions Joseph and Mary's flight to Egypt to escape from King Herod, and God driving Adam and Eve out of Eden, so I understand the confusion...

[@jt2473]

@@MsGbergh The went via El Al business class.

[@Olimar92]

"Can I drink this?" If you want a trip to the hospital or die. They tell you the dangers at the start of class.

[@MannyBrum]

The pyramid question could lead to an etymology discussion. We call them pyramids because the Ancient Greeks thought they looked like a type of honey wheat cakes common at the time, so they used the word pyramis to describe them. The actual name given to them by the Ancient Egyptians, however, was 'Mer'. Thus, the English word pyramid (used to describe a shape) comes from the shape of a loaf of bread, which was probably conical and not pyramidal (the Egyptians made conical loaves and cakes, which feature prominently in heiroglyphs). Each pyramid had its own name, for instance the Great Pyramid had the name Akhet Khufu which means Khufu's Horizon, which is a hell of a lot cooler than "great pyramid".

[@Vinemaple]

This is awesome information, but I can't stop thinking, now, about how for a few months in the 1990s everyone would shout out "MER!" every time they heard something they thought was stupid or boring.

[@timothyholden8843]

Ok I got a story. We were talking about how experience is more important than grades, then he say “if you can choose the doctor that will give you heart surgery between a doctor that had 10 years of experience but all B’s and a doctor with 7 months of experience but all A’s which would you choose. Btw there is no stupid question.” I asked “Which one is cheaper.” He say “never mind there are very stupid questions.” Edit: this take place in the US in 7th grade

[@kawaibakaneko]

The question was pretty smart! Both of them are still good doctor, so go for the cheapest 😂

[@lomax343]

"Which one is cheaper?" is a very important question in the US, but completely irrelevant in the civilised world.

[@Vinemaple]

That's not a stupid question if the surgery is taking place in the US.

[@Trees100]

@@lomax343 "civilized world"? Is the US not civilized?

[@lomax343]

@@Trees100 "America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilisation in between" - Georges Clemenceau (though it has been attributed to others). Whilst America tolerates poverty on a massive scale (minimum wage $7.25 an hour); whilst it tolerates two mass shootings a week but refuses to pass any gun laws; whilst its health system cares about nothing but profit, leaving millions of US citizens to suffer and die needlessly; then no, the USA can NOT be considered civilised.

[@rand0_b009]

"Gatsby was a Nazi." I couldn't stop myself from laughing.

[@emberfist8347]

That is even dumber to my story. Someone in my class asked why John Steinbeck couldn't face-time his wife.

[@rand0_b009]

@@emberfist8347 CRYING-

[@ninomitchell2039]

I was in a computer design class in high school and this one kid CONSTANTLY asked how to do what we were doing. Often we had verbal and written instructions.

[@Vinemaple]

Once again, never learned to work things out for himself, instead learned to use everyone else's brain to do his thinking. They're out there

[@ninomitchell2039]

@@Vinemaple yeah basically. Worst part is, the people he typically asked to help started to slip grade-wise and even the teacher told him to, basically, f off, citing literally everything I said above.

[@TheOriginalJphyper]

#17, the student clearly meant "oscillate". OP didn't seem to pick up on that.

[@lomoop791]

I remember a girl when i was in high school who asked "is London in Paris or is Paris in London" 🤦‍♀️

[@Xeorboom]

they're BOTH in Texas!

[@emberfist8347]

8:00 I can relate to this because I once had to read Travels With Charlie in middle school. For those who don't know, it was a book published based on a collection of letters John Steinbeck (best known today for writing The Grapes of Wrath about the Dustbowl in the 1930s) sent to his wife travelling across the country to find the stories of regular people with his dog. One of my classmates asked why he didn't use FaceTime instead. The confused me not because at the time I didn't know what FaceTime (I didn't get my own phone until high school) but the lack of understanding of time in this case makes it dumber because we are all told about Steinbeck's history at the start including The Grapes of Wrath which should have been a dead giveaway.

[@lowrenzebendanillo1349]

I have a high school classmate who once asked my teacher if we're going to use a short or long folder to store our projects written in long bond paper, my teacher is so fed up with her questions that she screamed her answer by saying "of course use long folder, why would you store you long bond paper inside a short folder?!"

[@KermitTheFrogman]

That Of Mice and Men question of what does George do on the farm had me laughing so hard lol

[@TCHorwood-xq7mw]

Fun fact: If your parents needed fertility treatment you're more likely to need fertility treatment when you try to conceive. So infertility is hereditary ... kind of.

[@LadyAnneJT]

My dad came to America from Australia when he was 10 years old. One day my 4th grade sister asked him, "When you a little boy and George Washington was president . . ." He interrupted her to say, "I didn't come to America until after Washington was president. Go ask your mother."

[@justinanderson4315]

I love that reaction to making the fan ovulate. “No, no I can not.”

[@pokyzard]

I was in class once, not sure what grade but it was higher than 5 I think, and we were learning about the middle east so my dumb ass asked it that's the place with hobbits and elfs and stuff. The teacher was really polite and said "no, that's middle earth" and I felt really dumb 😂 not my brightest momment and sadly not the last time I was dumb

[@jackaylward-williams9064]

In all fairness, I only learned recently that African-Americans were predominantly descended from slaves, not immigrants. I always assumed that segregation after the civil war had stemmed from the idea that African Americans were “taking people’s jobs” in the same way as modern prejudices against refugees.

[@Vinemaple]

A 19-year-old in my maritime school used to troll the class with questions we thought were stupid: "Can a submarine do a barrel roll?" "How do magnets work?" Nowadays I realize he was just an early adopter of the memes. There was, however, a maritime engineering student, also 19, who asked, "Don't people just hang in midair for a moment, before they fall?" and "Do pirates still wear the hats and the fancy coats and stuff?" He was probably serious. Also 5:35 is every time I try to talk to my mother about something fictional. And every time I try to talk to her about something real, she asks me if it's a story.

[@ItsK5YT]

1:50 why tf they doing sex ed in 5th grade for lmfao

[@peetabrown5813]

17:53 not knowing people speak English in Texas is one thing; but the ‘maybe’ response is not wrong, just because someone from a region can speak a language doesn’t mean that everyone from that region speak’s that language- some people speak more than one language

[@Beamer01]

I actually used to think that color didn’t exist back then. It was embarrassing.

[@helgam.4250]

To be fair... Color is a construct of the human mind.

[@rosiefay7283]

16:00 Confusing Martin Luther with Martin Luther King --- or perhaps intending to say Martin Luther but then reflexively continuing "King" --- an easy mistake to make. Like misspelling "threw" in a reddit post ridiculing a student.

[@JackieOwl94]

I remember a student asking where my “off” button was, because, as he explained, “All teachers are just robots. And if you ask a robot to provide you the off switch, they have to do it” I just looked at him and asked him if he was a robot. “No, I’m human. I’m not an alien like *insert Jewish student’s name*, or a robot like all of you are.” Turns out his parents were big Alex Jones fans and was convinced by his father that my job was the harness his life force to destroy the earth…And he wanted to “turn off” the teachers so he could go home early without homework. His parents were contacted.

[@SSNNPBCC]

Had a teacher say there was no stupid questions. I immediately without hesitation asked them what a question was. They changed their mind quite quickly

[@averagepanzer]

Someone in my biology class asked: 'is climate change the fault of finnish immigrants?'

[@EllpaFox47]

“What does AD stand for” “After dinosaurs” I mean, she’s not wrong

[@SenseiRaisen]

To quote Einstein: "There is 2 things i considerate infite. The universe and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the 1st"

[@anvilsvs]

Stupidity rules the world because Intelligence is finite, but stupidity is infinite.

[@apathymanthemundane4165]

I always imagined it's less THAT the question is asked, and more HOW it was asked. I remember sounding my dumbest when I assumed something that was wrong.

[@bridgetcooney5085]

But can we all agree that a fantasy history novel where the Huns are centaurs would be crazy cool! If done with care, and enough knowledge of history and cultural history if course

[@lomax343]

It's speculated that the centaur myth had its origin when an ancient people who'd never seen horses encountered a horse-riding nomadic people - probably in Asia. This theory is given weight by the fact that the Aztecs - who'd never even heard of horses - thought the Conquistadors were a sort of centaur.

[@jakebreaker]

"Here's your sign." - Bill Engvall

[@jonathanfaulkner878]

I’m a custodian at an elementary school. I once heard a student ask the school nurse if she thinks Chihuahuas are demons.

[@jcellwood]

Yes. Yes, they are.

[@Facetiously.Esoteric]

Lol

[@Monocultured01]

During my student teaching: 8th grade student: "what's Missouri?" Me: "You mean the state of Missouri?" Him: "Yeah, what's that?"

[@soupafi]

it'll be a cold day in hell before i recognize missouri

[@spacekid9680]

5:41 I completely understand the confusion. Yes it is the same sun. But it often seems like it isn't because it's so cold here in Scotland!

[@osbornejohnson7919]

wait... if the definition of African-American is an american who is descended from African migrants, and there are white africans, is it really proper to equate african-americans with black people on a 1 to 1 basis? It would mean that there are white african americans!

[@Ej-qn2md]

Woahhhhhhh......

[@ItsK5YT]

10:53 wtf even is file sharing

[@misspinkpunkykat]

I had a teacher in high school who was "The stupidest questions are the ones that go unasked"

[@ItsK5YT]

11:04 what is file sharing tho…

[@krankarvolund7771]

Wait 26 and he thinks commas are imaginary? How did he get to college without using any commas, his dissertations must be horrifying in terms of punctuations XD

[@idk-111-idk]

a student told my teacher that the moon was invisible😂

[@The_Autistinator]

listening to these questions makes my brain cells decay

[@brendanmurphy1074]

In high school, we had 15yo classmate allow for massive variables in her calculations on a project. Why? Because if the car would be faster in finishing the circuit if it's red. 🚘 girl legitimately thought red cars are inherently faster than any others 🤦

[@krankarvolund7771]

If you're green and believe it sufficiently it works :p

[@perpetualplanner]

The kid understands the waghhh energy

[@samsimington5563]

This game looks like some kind of Subway Surfer knockoff

[@Archiv1st]

i feel like im missing something in story 30, what do they meanby file sharing? like sharing the answers or online work to another student?

[@dutchvanderbilt9969]

"you didn't tell me what to wipe with" What!?!?

[@benjamincornia7311]

The dumbest question I’ve heard is, “Is this going to be on the test?” It’s so rude, and yet there would always be some idiot in school asking that question.

[@carmium]

Actually, in uni, our geography 20-something prof was writing notes on the board when he suddenly stopped, turned, and sat on the corner of his desk. "Actually," he said, "there's been some interesting work done with clam shells..." This was in regard to dating ancient geological strata. Everyone who had been frantically taking notes stopped for the brief break, then he turned back to the board and the subject at hand. The sound of pens and paper resumed. Imagine our surprise when our half-term exam asks, coyly: "What on Earth do scientists want with old clam shells?" Hardly anyone recalled enough to get any points, and we were all miffed at what felt like being gaslighted. If only someone had asked *Is this exam material?*

[@benjamincornia7311]

That, or people could pay attention and show respect for themselves and for the teacher by not suggesting what the teacher is saying is worthless or implying that their intelligence is highly limited.

[@Awsomesauce-i1b]

Someone in my 8th grade US history class asked "Didn't we just learn about the Civil War?" After we just finished the Revolutionary War. She also thought that the Vietnam War was the one with Pearl Harbor. Also, in 7th grade, someone thought that a decade was 100 years.

[@pla1nswalk3r]

Last story: The answer is "Yes, but only once."

[@ajyt2165]

My teacher jokingly called sabertooth tigers vampire tigers and woolly mammoths hairy elephants and my friend believed him. He said it out loud in history

[@sarahanderson136]

Story 12: how you went all in on the situation reminds me of my American Problems class. Essentially government credit taught by a theatre kid and a stage crew kid. We had simulations of being in a totalitarian government, arguing cases in front of federal courts, political caucuses and managing an election, and finally what was model UN but with a custom program and for a grade. So glad we had guided notes so the class ran smoothly

[@eileencollins8799]

I was a school teacher. One day I set a, English comprehension test which required written answers to a short piece of text. One boy’s answers were really odd, so I asked him to re-do them. It got worse. He ended up writing reams of drivel before confessing it hadn’t occurred to him to actually read the text on which the questions were based.

[@Dragontamer135]

There was a girl in my high school who asked what gravity was. I told her "it's what keeps airheads like you from floating away."

[@RealGamer101Official]

Once I watched this video, I realized that people can ask stupid questions, and those are definitely the best ones.😅

[@DarthEquus]

8:08 To be fair, a lot of kids think the earlier decades looked just like the media depicting them, because it's the only source they have for that age. Thus, the 20s were silent, the 30s and 40s were sepia, the 50s were in black and white, the 60s were in color and washed out, the 70s looked like a polaroid with stereo sound but hissy, the 80s had synth music playing in the background, and the 90s finally had digital sound. (Though I had shaken off this notion when I was 7 or 8, myself)

[@Nixie3545]

I am not a teacher and this is not happening class but a friend of mine back in high school legitimately asked what was Hitler's last name. The funniest s*** ever and it did not help that she was a blond. LOL

[@DrGiggleTouch67]

2:25 11:38 These exact comments were also in a Matt Rose video so I think you guys found the same thread.

[@linkfromzelda1002]

6:26 Maybe not hereditary, but the odds of a baby being mutilated at birth are raised dramatically if the father was also mutilated at birth. Sort of like a vicious cycle of cope.

[@WalterRutledge-l9i]

In my career, which included some teaching for evey age group from fifth grade through seasoned professionals, one thing I retain is that it is far easier to handle "stupid" questions than the stupid mistakes happening because no one raised the question. So use each one as a teaching moment, such as guiding the questioner through "thinking" it out. Right behind that, being a lifetime learner myself, is to be patient and gentle with ALL learners. And about that "do they speak English in Texas" question ... they CAN, but they obviously cannot understand it any better than the rest of us when mixed up with Legalese and Biblethump. I gotta go along with "maybe" as my final answer 😢 !

[@Nightcappy]

Had a classmate in 11th grade (yes, 11th fricking grade) unironically ask during a lesson on WW2 "who Holocaust was". My history teacher was unable to respond to that for at least 10 whole seconds. He just stood there looking kind of lost. Luckily for her it was at the end of the lesson and most students had already left but you gotta imagine we're in the middle of Europe, it's 2022, we're right next to Germany, everybody has access to the internet and WW2 had been the topic for LITERALLY THE LAST FEW WEEKS