{"id":13739,"date":"2023-09-03T15:36:28","date_gmt":"2023-09-03T22:36:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sd41blogs.ca\/gaitensp\/?p=13739"},"modified":"2023-09-04T23:02:24","modified_gmt":"2023-09-05T06:02:24","slug":"listening-is-an-act-of-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sd41blogs.ca\/gaitensp\/2023\/09\/03\/listening-is-an-act-of-community\/","title":{"rendered":"“Listening is an act of community”"},"content":{"rendered":"

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When I first started teaching in the MACC program at Suncrest in 2016 (if you didn’t know or couldn’t tell by looking at [what’s left of] my hair, MACC-teacher years are similar to dog years, which makes me old<\/em>), the school counsellor, the indomitable Ms. Tahara, gave me this card, as a tool to use with students:<\/p>\n

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I’ve had it pinned up with a magnet on the whiteboard in both classrooms, Suncrest and Cap Hill, ever since, and every once in a while I have looked at it and had a variety of reactions, ranging from inspiration to, after particularly challenging days, deep, wistful sighs.\u00a0 But earlier this week, as I was preparing the class for the transition into the new year, I saw it again, and it helped tie together a few things that have been floating around in my consciousness over the past couple of months, as I have lain out on a log at the high tide line in Qualicum<\/strong><\/a> each night, watching the stars and listening to all the different moods and messages of the ocean.<\/p>\n\nhttp:\/\/sd41blogs.ca\/gaitensp\/files\/2023\/09\/Ocean-1.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\nhttp:\/\/sd41blogs.ca\/gaitensp\/files\/2023\/09\/ocean-2.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\nhttp:\/\/sd41blogs.ca\/gaitensp\/files\/2023\/09\/ocean-3.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

(which of course makes me think of this old favorite<\/strong><\/a> from Room 105, which was born of close listening; this book<\/strong><\/a> was a great read this summer)<\/p>\n

I am curious about this act of listening, MACC-sters, and it may form a big part of our learning this year.<\/p>\n

In a classroom setting, we tend to think about listening as not talking when someone else is talking (which is a great start!), but I wonder what else is actually involved – are there different types of listening?\u00a0 How does listening actually help us, aside from as a performative act for a teacher whom we know gives listening a 50% weight in Oral Language assessment? How does it help us as scholars, beyond Language Arts?\u00a0 How does it help us as young (and old<\/em>) humanoids, in our relations with others and in our relation to ourselves?<\/p>\n

What happens when we listen to nature<\/a><\/strong>?<\/p>\n

What do we have to learn from listening to the Universe<\/a><\/strong>?<\/p>\n

What sounds exist in silence<\/a><\/strong>?<\/p>\n

How does listening help us find and sustain concentration and equanimity<\/a><\/strong>? (PS: Equanimity may be one of our Words of the Year – if you want a jumpstart, look it up!)<\/p>\n

What does it mean to listen to your inner voice?\u00a0 How does that actually work?\u00a0 How does it help us?<\/p>\n

(BTW, one of my teachers<\/a><\/strong> introduced this idea<\/a><\/strong> this month – that only 43% of our bodies are actually made of human cells<\/a><\/strong>; the rest are “microbial colonists,” which is equal parts fascinating and disgusting.\u00a0 Given that this is true, does it make us think about that “inner voice” a little differently?\u00a0 Who the heck are we listening to?!?)<\/p>\n

Master writer Ursula K. Le Guin<\/a><\/strong>, whose work we will explore this year, said in a talk called “The Operating Instructions<\/a><\/strong>” that she gave to Oregon Literary Arts,\u00a0“Listening is an act of community, which takes space, time, and silence.”<\/p>\n

How will listening help us build our class community together – ideally, a place where each of us feels deeply and truly seen, understood, and accepted for who we are? Le Guin says:<\/p>\n

“People unite themselves and give each other parts of themselves – inner parts, mental not bodily parts – when they talk and listen. Two people talking [in this way] form a community of two. People are also able to form communities of many, through sending and receiving bits of ourselves and others back and forth continually – through, in other words, talking and listening.<\/span><\/p>\n

Talking and listening are ultimately the same thing.”<\/span><\/p>\n

(That’s from her essay “Telling is listening<\/a><\/strong>,” which I totally don’t get yet but I have a book on order from the library<\/a><\/strong> that will hopefully provide some clues.)<\/p>\n

(One tool we will use to develop and nurture these skills of giving and receiving is a revival of a longstanding-but-last-year-neglected Room 105 practice, the Socratic Circle<\/a><\/strong>!)<\/p>\n

Looking at the same idea from a different angle, Le Guin tells us that “Reading is listening,” which makes me think about the tangible energy that is in the room whenever we are reading a great book together, and the fierce, otherworldly concentration you see on someone’s face when they are curled up with a good book, in conversation with the author, totally transported to a different time and place.<\/p>\n

She also says that in order for humanity to makes its way out of the climate and tech crises we find ourselves in, we need to start listening to voices that before now have been minimalized or ignored:<\/p>\n