MacKenzie Greenlee
COMM 160
Christina L. Ivey
2 January 2017
The statement I
found to be very beneficial and insightful with the readings was on page 50. It
states, “There are many listening situations where we might check out or harden
ourselves or give someone too much slack – situations where we would benefit
from engaging in compassionate critical listening. This sentence really stuck
out to me, because with all the communication classes I have been in and what I
want to do with my career, listening, especially compassionate critical
listening is crucial.
Most classes talk
about critical listening and how it is important to hear all the details being
said, but this book explained it differently which I like. It talks about how
we can give someone too much slack when we don’t listen fully, or not enough
slack because we listen to bits and pieces of the information told to us. What
really made me think was the fact that in this context, if we are talking to
someone from another culture or even a different context than what the other
person thinks is being portrayed, the whole conversation can go the wrong way
than intended. If we do not listening closely or compassionately enough to when
someone is speaking, we can miss key clues into what they are voicing, which
can lead to misunderstandings or conflict if not listened to correctly.
What I love so
much about communication is there is so many ways to communicate with people,
nonverbal, interpersonal, etc. but there is not many different ways to listen
to a person compassionately. Listening to someone compassionately and critical
takes patience and practice, you have to fully give your brain over to the
person speaking to fully digest what they are trying to say, not just how they
say it, and this is what the book describes well.
An article I found,
“Why Developing Critical Listening Skills Matters” talks about how history,
math, and science can all be taught, but the art of listening cannot be. The
teacher started teaching listening skills in their classroom and having assignment
to help the students start to critically listen. She states that having students
from all over the world, she knew that they had stories to tell, so she helped
them articulate and create their story to help share with others, which
emphasized the importance of the other students listening skills.
I think this
article goes to show that listening is not taught in the school systems, but
should be, because listening is how we learn and engage with other human
beings. If we do not listen to others, their points of view will go unheard and
can even make them feel unworthy of being listened to. If schools started to
teach listening like this teacher, students can gain a better insight with
their voice, but also learning and understanding more of others around them.
Here is the URL for the article:
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