You’re sitting in your 12th period math class, and for the first time since you’ve come to high school, you feel smart. You’re understanding every word that’s coming out of your teacher’s mouth, you’re getting all the answers right in class, and you feel absolutely brilliant. (Surprising, considering you’re usually the kid who fights to stay awake in class.) She assigns 30 questions for homework tonight, but for the first time, you’re not dreading it. Finally, you’ve found something that you understand!
3 hours later, you’re sitting in front of your computer in your room, staring at the one problem you haven’t been able to solve yet. It’s almost a mile long, and no matter how hard you try, it is just NOT SOLVING!!!
With that problem incomplete, you go to class the next day, and your math teacher asks,
“Does anybody have any homework questions from last night?”
You open your mouth to ask the question, but the words die in your throat. Your teacher still thinks you’re a genius, and one stupid question might change that.
Why ask?
While this story may not be of a real person, many of us can relate to this situation. The fear of asking a stupid question or hearing a friend call us dumb keeps many of us quiet when we have a problem that needs solving.
But why is this? Is asking questions really a sign of weakness?
Is taking help really a sign of weakness?
Ms. Ingle, an experienced Algebra 2 teacher at JP Stevens, says otherwise.
Soon after the birth of her first child, Ms. Ingle began to struggle with anxiety, but wasn’t completely open to the idea of accepting help.

During my conversation with her, she recalled that it was only when her husband asked her if she was alright that she broke down and said,
“I need help.”
After this event, her family helped her get therapy and meet with a psychiatrist so that she could work through her anxiety and learn to adapt to her new life. This was a difficult phase for her, but she has the support she needed to persevere through it, even when she faced a similar anxiety just last summer.
“Life is always going to be up and down,” she said. “But getting help and having support is what you need.”
As students in John P Stevens High School, we are not short of stress in any way. Homework, extracurriculars, and projects tend to pile up, and it’s easy to feel completely overwhelmed.
However, sometimes the best thing we can do for ourselves is understand that we’re not alone. There are people who want to help us, whether it be our family, our closest friends, or a trusted adult. All we need to do is ask.
“If there’s anything I want people to know,” Ms. Ingle said. “It’s that asking for help is not weakness. You can’t do this world alone.”