From the introduction to a wonderful new book called What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hyptothetical Questions by Randall Munroe.

They say there are no stupid questions. That’s obviously wrong; I think my question about hard and soft things1Told earlier in the introduction., for example, is pretty stupid. But it turns out that trying to throughly answer a stupid question can take you to some pretty interesting places.

When I was still in the classroom with teenagers,2As opposed to now where my students are adults, some of which act like teenagers. :-) we called those side trips triggered by “stupid” questions “teachable moments”.

Unfortunately, too many educators now don’t have time for that kind of explorative, interesting, unexpected learning. They’re too busy “covering material”.