Do we pay enough attention to conversation?

February 7, 2007

I am posting this from a public computer located in the Department of Education of my University where I am awaiting a 5pm class. I’ve been walking around campus for the last hour or so, quick bite to eat, and some low level sociological observations, which are always fun. What follows are my observations, and surely I will augment some opinion. Take it for what it’s worth. Hat tip to Jeff Utecht, who is constantly talking about how much he loves conversation partly due to it being such a source of learning for him.

I had to keep reminding myself that these students were recently answering “here” in the context of k12 education. Most of them looked like kids to me, albeit I am but 29 years old. Maybe it’ s me, but they looked young.

A great number of kids seemed to be involved in their own world and intentionally closing off the outside world. I do this as well, since this is my only time during the week to walk around with an iPod in my pocket playing catch-up with all the podcasts I have been meaning to listen to, as well as just veg out to some music. This observation is worth making because when I was in college the first time, in 1995, cell phones, the Internet, and connectedness in general was not nearly as widespread.

Students spent the time immediately following a class talking about the shared experience. They either continued the learning or just commiserated about the course.

When I went back to undergraduate (after a few-year haitus the atmosphere had changed entirely. Not only did students not talk to one another following class time, they all pulled out cell phones and began dialing. This blew me away!

They wanted familiar connections, not new ones.

They wanted connections made in the context of fun, not class.

They didn’t want to connect with me.

I’m a talker. I love to have long conversations where both parties get to wax rhetoric about deeply philosophical topics, ranging anywhere from existentialism to education. Nothing lights up my day like a conversation with someone who challenges my thinking. I like it when my thinking is rocked, because it either changes or is strengthened.

Do undergrads crave that any more? Not from each other, it seems.

The mess hall ( do they call it that any more? ) showed a different scene. There were a couple of folks studying individually and a few others chatting. Since it was 3:30ish, there weren’t many folks around. The conversations I did overhear (read: eavesdropped) were about circumstance. Who did what, who went where, and with whom, etc. All par for the course. What I did notice that further irked me is that half of the people having face-to-face conversations were also chatting with someone via cell phone.

Is that what we’ve taught our kids? That people do not deserve our full attention?

Do I do that to my daughters? Do I ever give her more than one ear while I am typing away?

Am I teaching her that one ear is enough?

A professor of mine remarked, following a 3 hour rich discussion on some of the more basic learning theories that freshmen cannot handle such a discussion because is requires more attention than they are used to having to allocate.

Am I teaching my daughter to allocate attention to two things at once?

Is my drive for productivity sending her the wrong signal? Hmmm..time for some self-check analysis.

Truth is, this whole post has been written whilst listening to Brave Saint Saturn on my iPod, which means, to be honest, I have only given it half my attention.

Ouch. Reality checks hurt…

Posted in General, nextgenteachers