0:00:01.510,0:00:04.480
Let me expand on that just a little.

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Let me make the distinction here [br]between a question and a quiz –

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because it's very important.

0:00:17.676,0:00:21.779
Now, if I'm walking, as I do, [br]on the streets of Boston --

0:00:21.779,0:00:23.600
(I don't own a car.)

0:00:23.600,0:00:26.463
– and a car comes up along side, [br]and somebody sticks his head

0:00:26.463,0:00:29.606
out the window and says,[br]"Hey, Mister," or whatever,

0:00:29.606,0:00:32.582
"can you tell us how to [br]get to Newbury Street?"

0:00:32.582,0:00:36.840
or "Copley Square," or [br]wherever it happens to be,

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that's a question.[br]They don't know.

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They want to know.[br]They think I know.

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So they ask me a question, hoping [br]to get from me the right answer --

0:00:48.265,0:00:51.345
which they don't have.

0:00:51.345,0:00:58.656
Now that's a legitimate question.[br]That's a search for information.

0:00:58.656,0:01:01.050
A quiz is something very different.

0:01:01.050,0:01:03.904
It <i>sounds</i> like a question –[br]It uses the same words.

0:01:03.904,0:01:06.619
But the intention is [br]altogether different.

0:01:13.810,0:01:25.673
I would be asking you a quiz if, believing [br]that <i>I</i> had the answer to something,

0:01:25.673,0:01:30.020
I asked you a question to [br]make sure that <i>you</i> had it.

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In other words, this is a way[br]of testing your knowledge --

0:01:35.680,0:01:39.900
of making sure that your[br]knowledge agrees with mine.

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Now little children understand very clearly [br]the difference between quizzes and questions.

0:01:50.683,0:01:54.126
Some of you will have had [br]the experience of asking

0:01:54.126,0:02:00.199
your little three year old or [br]four year old a quiz-type question.

0:02:00.199,0:02:06.050
And you may get the [br]answer, "I don't know" --

0:02:06.050,0:02:11.079
which is just a child's way [br]of refusing to answer what he/she[br]knows is not a real question,

0:02:11.079,0:02:14.533
not a serious question,[br]not an honest question.

0:02:14.533,0:02:20.850
Or you may get some silly answer.[br]That's another way of disposing of it.

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One mother tells me that when she occasionally[br]loses her common sense for a second,

0:02:28.819,0:02:34.080
and asks her child a kind of quiz type question,[br]the child turns right around and asks her one.

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Little children understand[br]that this is a quiz, not a question.

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And they further understand[br]that all that all quiz-type questions

0:02:55.550,0:03:02.148
are a statement of lack of confidence.[br]

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This is a vote of no confidence.

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Children resist being asked quiz-type questions[br]for the same type of reason they resist

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being taught things when they [br]haven't asked for them --

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because they realize [br]that this is you stating:

0:03:20.749,0:03:24.859
"I don't really think you know this."

0:03:24.859,0:03:28.230
This is a statement of [br]lack of trust and confidence.

0:03:28.230,0:03:33.658
And so they tend to react to it [br]with a lot of anger and resistance --

0:03:33.658,0:03:36.442
which I think is altogether proper.

0:03:36.458,0:03:42.989
And I'd hope when we get these signals,[br]we would pay attention to them.