two voices

Two Voices November 21, 2007 by Ben Slavic

I have a Gifted/Talented class I have chosen to run on the socratic seminar format, with less emphasis on research and more on discussion. I have noticed something lately in that class that, because it is a discussion class, I am trying to apply to my language classes.

In this G/T class, I have noticed that the words that I say are less important to my kids than I had formerly thought, but that the way I say those words is most important. This is an insight of great importance to me, something I wish had come to my attention many years ago.

A second new, connected, awareness I have gained in teaching that class is the need to demonstrate to my students my intent to hear what they are saying back to me more and more.

So in this GT class,when I focus less on what I am saying and more on how I am saying it, and if I show my intent to listen more than my intent to be heard, things go better.

Pontificating to kids never works, of course. It’s just that it is not an easy thing to stop doing, perhaps because it is a teaching model that is lodged in the collective unconscious mind of every one of us.

But being aware of what the kids are hearing and experiencing in the class is undoubtedly up there on the marquee of all the coming shows in education. Clearly, the shift is that I must now learn to show my loving intent to attend fully to what my students say in class.

In the future educational world, I must learn to listen and listen well to the words they speak, and to become more and more aware of what they are experiencing as I teach. Showing that intent will most certainly open up new pathways of communication between us, and increase our learning.

I have a big poster in my classroom that asks my kids to be visible for each other, to be present as a listener, and to not talk over each other. I never reflected until now, however, on how important it is that I myself model those behaviors first.

If, in both my G/T and language classes, I ask my kids to listen with the intent to understand, why indeed should I then not teach them by clearly demonstrating to them my own intention to understand what they are experiencing as they listen to my words? But how to do this?

Teaching while at the same time demonstrating my clear intention to understand what they are experiencing as they listen to my words requires more, much more, than merely a physical/mental voice. It requires an inner/heart voice. The outer voice delivers the information, the inner voice starts the dance.

We think that the outer voice is the most important. The inner one, however, counts so much more in reaching our kids!

It is the inner voice that prevents the words I am speaking, whether in the G/T class in English or the language classes in French, from slamming around the room, and thus failing to land in the kids’ awareness authentically. It is the inner voice of my being aware of what my kids are getting that conveys meaning, beyond just mere information.

The physical voice functions at the lower levels of the taxonomy, conveying knowledge, and when the kids hear it and understand it, they convey knowledge and they can pass tests.

But all that is really very boring, and not connected to real acquisition - to the good stuff. When I use the inner voice of loving kindness, higher levels of meaning are reached. We dance, not just learn.

This inner voice is very kind. The physical voice, run by our minds, is always less kind. It is the voice of people who deliver instructional services. The inner voice, because it is run by our inner awareness of what the kids are getting, is the voice of real teaching.

The key to the puzzle is simple kindness. All we have to do is to be conscious of, to be aware of, to be present for, to be visible to, and to not talk over our kids. Blaine says, we must listen to their cute answers. The key word in his message is “listen”.

How do we get in touch with our inner voice? Is there an even deeper voice that guides our inner voice? Surely there is, but it can’t be talked about. It is a very personal voice, the one that guides the story along, giving intuitive insights, guiding everything, really.

Our kids will learn much more if we show them our intent to guide our words with loving kindness and to listen to their words with loving kindness and our willingness at each moment in class to wait and monitor and attend to and be aware of what they are getting.

• ben slavic
• listen