By Sgt. David J. Harris

In my previous article I discussed the reasons for FTO’s asking their trainees, or student officers, the “why” questions.  While I do believe it is critical to ask questions, it is just as important to permit our S/Os the time to answer them.

It is well documented in classroom settings that teachers ask their students questions and typically allow one second for the student to respond.  I don’t know about you, but unless they are asking me for my birthday or to recite the alphabet (in order), I would require some time to think about the question before I was able to respond.  The ability to correctly answer a question in 1 second typically requires memorization, sometimes referred to as rote recall.  The alphabet, multiplication, vowels are examples of subjects we learned in school and committed to memory.  How can we truly expect our S/Os to answer questions if we do not permit them the time to do so?