eighth grade lesson: we are always communicating
I remember my eighth grade language arts classroom, where Mr. Keller, a tall, gangly man, spent quite a bit of time on less “written” communication and more time on other types of communication for a period of about a month — not new media or electronic stuff, but nonverbals, internal communication, listening, etc. In hindsight, it was pretty useful.
But to someone as bullheaded as I was, it was fluff. The nonverbal stuff was interesting to me as an eighth grader, but when Mr. Keller told us that we are always communicating, even when we don’t intend it, I thought it was bunk. He even said that we were communicating while we slept! (Because we are communicating that we are sleeping if someone is present, or if our door is closed to our bedroom.) I left the classroom for lunch break and remember telling my friends that “this is stupid.”
Now, however, it’s obvious that we’re always communicating. I think it became clear to me a few months later once I let my arrogance subside and listened to the idea again after mulling it around.
