Are We Listening?

   Initially, I thought it was just me. I'd sit down at home, "listen" to my bride present a situation, and quickly share with her several possible solutions. This would quickly upset her and over time I learned that she wasn't looking for me to be a problem-solver but rather simply a sounding board as she explored situations and considered a diverse set of opportunities that could possibly occur next. I'd love to say that I extinguished my problem-solver tendencies but perhaps the right word is reduced my problem-solver nature. When I'm sick, in a rush, or doing other things I quickly slip back in to problem-solver mode and I'm off to the races again missing the messages my bride is sharing. As I said, initially I thought this was just me, but as I have had the opportunity to work with hundreds of adults in a multitude of districts I began to realize that being a problem-solver is a cultural role in our society. In my region of the universe, there is this attempt to treat every situation as a task. You have this occurring, here take two of these each day for the next week. Let me know how it works for you. How much time do we sit and listen?
    The listening component is not limited to oral communication. As writers, there has been a definitive move towards becoming more formulaic. The formula, a structured argumentative essay, concisely presenting research based components to support our point of view, begins with the classic hamburger paragraph writing. The 6+1 traits writing that swept the nation was simply based upon the writing rubric for standardized assessments. As the world has become more integrated, we have put a premium on even more concise forms of communication. Texts and tweets limited to 140 characters and possibly a link or a picture have become prevalent forms of interactions. The reality is that when young people text and tweet, they text and tweet a lot. In 2013, US Smartphone holders between 18-24 sent and received nearly 4000 texts per day. So while each text was short, the multitude created a significant level of interaction and dialogue.  Questions remain regarding the quality of communication? Is this sharing, listening, understanding another's point of view? What are the cultural norms behind this?
   Different languages have different structures. This impacts our interactions and understandings. Beeman and Urow in their discussion of biliteracy frameworks discuss the difference between communication styles of native Spanish speakers primarily from Mexico and typical native English speakers in the United States. They identify the frequent tendency in the native English speaker to be sequential and concise, whereas the cultural norms of the native Spanish speakers primarily from Mexico were to explore situations, discuss relationships from a variety of perspectives, and require the audience to cultivate numerous inferences. These are two distinctively different approaches to communication. In a world in which native English speakers are quickly trying to identify and solve problems, we have multilingual kids that are culturally set to explore and elaborate conversations patiently providing nuanced dialogue.
   What happens when we encounter cultures in which the organization of the the language changes, from subject verb object to subject object verb? What does this mean in terms of others interpretation of our actions? What happens when we push students who are culturally set to be linguistic explorers into the concise sequential guidelines of our 6+1 auto-graded writing rubrics? Are we measuring differences in language application and cultural norms, by simply requiring writing in a methodology that one does not naturally order their thoughts in?
   We talk about the Internet causing the world to become more connected. In many respects it is. However, it is still in it's infancy. The reality is 55% of web content is currently written in English whereas only 5% of the world speaks English as it's first language. As mobile devices expand and more people have access more people will seek to use and create at least local content in their native language. Communication from our perspective is limited by our own cultural norms and ideas. As we prepare our students for the world, we may need to rethink our styles to embrace wider methods of communication and a discovery of norms and contexts. We can begin this adventure today, with our partners, the parents of our students that we meet in conferences, and our colleagues. Instead of trying to quickly solve the problem, lets ask open questions and see where the conversation takes us. There may be deeper learnings we discover.

Fresh Prince: Google Translated