This I Believe
From the time of being a small child, I wanted to be a lawyer. I loved to talk and my grandfather always encouraged the idea due to my gift to gab. I took that as a compliment, not sure it was meant that way. As I entered my teen years, social justice issues never exhausted me and politics was my passion. This passion is what led me to Capitol Hill.
As I walked the Mall, my heartbeat would soar. D.C. was a city of energy, power, and great history. As a place of great promise, there was nowhere I would have rather been. Not long after my arrival, however, a shift occurred, one that would change my life course forever.
My days in Washington, D.C. were filled with researching, attending congressional hearings, fielding constituent concerns, and developing newsletters and memos for federal legislators. I soaked up every detail of the environment that I could. For perhaps the first time, I was observing. I was listening. The problem was, I am not sure anyone else was doing the same. The disconnect between this robust town and the lives of everyday people was staggering. It seemed to me that everyone was talking, no one was listening, and I was suffocating. When I finally stopped talking and started truly hearing, I realized I needed a place where listening was valued for inspiring change. I found the space to start breathing again in teaching.
A common misperception may be that in the education profession, instructors do a lot of talking. While this may be true in some scenarios, it is through the art of listening that I truly understand the students I teach, their individual needs, their dreams for the future, and their challenges of today. Students communicate with me in a variety of ways: blogging, class discussion, tweets, emails, and, at times, complete silence. It is sometimes the child that sits in silence that speaks volumes. Part of my learning is listening to the silence.
While my own observations are important, the communication between students has proven vital in the classroom where I teach. Through their writing, sharing, and listening, students have developed a better understanding of one another. I would have never known that a student wakes up at three in the morning to milk the cows before she comes to school, or that a student builds cars with his dad and races them on the weekends, or that a student cares for an ailing parent outside of the school day. They have so much to share and I find their voices, perspectives, and ideas inspiring. There is so much I learn from students each and every day. The art of listening is critical in learning and truly understanding. This I believe.
