Every class I’ve ever taught has had the same moment. I explain something, I ask if there are questions, and the room goes quiet. Somebody in that room didn’t get it. They just decided it was safer to stay quiet than to look slow in front of their crew.

Silence isn’t understanding

When a class doesn’t ask questions, a lot of instructors take that as a good sign. It usually isn’t. Silence can mean everybody got it. It can also mean nobody wants to be the first to admit they didn’t.

I’ve been in this service a long time, and I can tell you the fire service has a pride problem when it comes to asking questions. We want to look like we already know. Nobody wants to be the rookie who held up the class. So people nod along, and they plan to figure it out later.

Later is the problem. Later might be a live burn, an aircraft on the ramp or a real fire with somebody inside. That’s a bad place to find out you didn’t understand the briefing. The training ground is where you’re supposed to be confused. That’s what it’s for.

Ask before the hardware comes out

The best time to ask a question is before you’re on air with a charged line in your hands. Once the evolution starts, the instructor is managing safety, the clock and a dozen moving parts. Your question still matters, but it’s harder to answer well.

So ask early. Ask during the briefing, ask during the walk-through and ask while the props are being set. If something in the plan doesn’t make sense, say so. If you don’t know where the safety officer is going to be, or what the signal is to back out, that isn’t a small detail. That’s the kind of thing that has to be clear before anybody lights anything.

The questions I want to hear most are the simple ones:

• What exactly am I supposed to be doing in this evolution?
• What does “done right” look like?
• What do I do if something goes wrong?
• Who do I go to if I’m not sure?

If you can’t answer those four for yourself, you aren’t ready to go yet. Ask until you can.

Good questions make the whole class better

Here’s something students forget. When you ask a question, you’re almost never asking it just for yourself. The mistake I see most is a student who sits on a question because they figure everybody else already knows. Then I find out half the room had the same question.

One honest question can fix a misunderstanding for an entire crew. It also tells the instructor something. If three people ask about the same step, I didn’t teach it well. That’s information I need, and I can’t get it from a quiet room.

Asking questions isn’t the same as arguing, though. There’s a difference between “help me understand why we do it this way” and trying to show the instructor up. The first one makes everybody better. The second one wastes everybody’s time. Come in curious, not combative.

Instructors, make it safe to ask

This part is on us. If students won’t ask questions, look at how you react when they do.

If you sigh, roll your eyes or make a joke at somebody’s expense, you just taught the whole class to keep their mouths shut. They’ll remember that a lot longer than whatever you were teaching. One bad reaction can shut down a room for the rest of the day.

Thank people for asking. Answer straight. If you don’t know, say you don’t know and find out. That builds more credibility than pretending ever will. And don’t just ask “any questions?” and move on before anybody can speak up. Ask something specific. “What’s the first thing you do if your partner goes down?” gets a lot more out of a class than a general invitation nobody takes.

The bottom line

Nobody ever got hurt on the fireground because they asked too many questions in class. Plenty of people have gotten into trouble because they didn’t ask one. If you don’t understand something, say so. If you’re teaching, make it easy for people to say so. The quiet room isn’t the smart room. It’s just the quiet one.

Stay safe, and train like it matters.

Eric Makowski