School

The school system does an awfully good job at convincing us that our thoughts are unimportant, unwanted, and should therefore be unheard. No teacher I have ever had has ever said this, but the inherent structure of a classroom implies this. The students are there to learn from the teacher. Yes. But where along the line did the meaning of learn change to be synonymous with "hear." The difference is key.
In 8th grade I challenged my teacher's opinion about "Too Kill a Mockingbird." I don't remember what I was saying and I was probably wrong, the young contrarian in me silently creeping out. I voiced my question, really an assertion phrased as a question, and a girl with whom I had never, and haven't since, held a conversation yelled out loud without looking at me: "Will you just shut up?! No one cares what you think!" I responded incorrectly. I was quiet for a week. Never talking and, for the first time in a long time, pouting angrily. I was silently cursing this girl for making me doubt myself. She hadn't really made me doubt my opinion, but the validity of my voice. The saddest thing that can happen to a person is to not overcome this doubt. Thankfully, I have a short memory and quickly moved past this asinine outburst.
In freshman year, I had a teacher who promoted class discussion and would condescend to me just the right amount. Freshmen should be condescended to. They are bratty and are, without knowing it, choosing a path for their intellectual future and condescension is a test. This teacher didn't let me ramble on and ruin his class, but he let me talk. And I kept talking and he never stopped me and in fact engaged me, no matter how many times he had to say "Yes, but you're missing the point." He didn't say this in a way that was trying to stop me from purposefully misunderstanding what he said, but rather to encourage my thought, but in the correct direction until I came to the forks in the road at which I could argue without missing the point.
The most common smart-ass comment that can be uttered in a math class is "When are we ever going to use this?" and there is a right way and a wrong way to ask it. By right and wrong I mean one person asks for a real-world application and one asks just to be a dick. The difference is in who the asker looks at after they ask their question. If the person looks around for confirmation that yes, great, you are in fact an asshole, making our teacher think then they are the less intelligent of the two people exemplified above. The other person asks to find out. I asked my teacher the other day in Calculus, the most famous in the category of "useless math" classes, what we would use a certain lesson for and she said "The next section." and moved on. I asked her in the next section what we would use this for and she said "Well it is one person's job in a construction business to calculate this. These calculations are very important for buildings as you can see by the answer to this problem. The margin of error is very low and the measurements must be within a certain percent of a number and this person does these calculations. You understand?" I really like this teacher now. She honestly answered me and proved that calculus is not useless.
Also recently, a girl in my calculus class did something that shocked me. She asked the same question I did: "When are we going to use this?" or some variation of it to the same effect. My teacher, bless her, was ready to answer either of the alternatives she raised: "Real-world or just within the section?"
"Oh just within the section." was the girl's response. My teacher answered her question and I was wondering if I had ever heard that question asked for that purpose. I hadn't and I realized something about school in that moment. This girl, and so many like her, had been conditioned that asking questions should confine to the lesson. The person who asks that question for a laugh, to be a smart-ass, has the same problem because they feel that the lesson actually is important but probably don't get it and want confirmation that it "is stupid, pointless, etc."
I am an active member of my classroom because I don't know another way to learn, really. I have avoided the societal conditioning to damn questions somehow. Perhaps by virtue of my big voice and my early realization that I could loudly talk over people to make points heard I came to know this. One way or another, I react negatively to the groans that come whenever I ask the teacher a question that challenges their recitation. So fuck your groans you robots. Go find something out instead of hearing what is droned into your skull and choking out your human urge to question it. The death of the urge to inquire is the death of the spirit.