As an Educational Consultant who has presented in hundreds of schools across the United States, I have observed over and over that  students who ask "why English is spelled the way it is" or 'why English grammar is different from Spanish or Chinese or Urdu or any other language, are almost always given the response that "English is a crazy language!", followed by  further admonishment by the teacher who tells the student(s) "sit down" and  to" just do what the textbook. tells them.  

Why does the student who has observed that the definition of noun as a "person, place, or thing" includes nouns such as "algebra", "beauty", "charm" "development", "experience" are all nouns and not

things insist that "in grammar they are thing"-- really?

Why does the student who uses the word "ain't" is told that it is "wrong" and should stop using it, yet never told the historic and social reasons for the ubiquitous word in the English language and if we go to operas, we can  hear it beautifully used in George Gershwin's song "It Ain't Necessarily So"?

Why do some teachers ridicule the student who asks why is "proper" noun PROPER and what makes a "common" noun COMMON?

I raise these questions as examples of the squelching of knowledge that pervades many of our classrooms, mainly for two reasons: 1)  Our textbooks are the absolute and final authority 2) students who ask deep questions interrupt what the teacher has been told to teach  3) the testing companies determine what students need to know and demean expansion of knowledge. 

Would love a discussion because ridiculing the students who want to "know more and go beyond" keeps all students fearful of asking questions and learning what lies outside the "testing ropes."

  in so many classrroms.