Beware of Your “Already Always Listening”

Liana Heitin in her recent article for Education Week cited three key skills critical for deep reading comprehension.  Along with academic language and complex reasoning, is perspective-taking, which is defined as the ability to recognize that different actors have different experiences of the same event.

I’ve been pondering a lead for this post for days, and then WOW, here it is! So back to my focus, and why am I asking you to “beware of your already always listening”?  As I brought to the forefront in my post on conflict resolution, our minds are molded by our prior knowledge and life experiences.  This is the lens which gives us our view of life’s events and how the world unfolds. However, we become handicapped if the experiences that have formed our opinions and values become biases, closing our minds to the perspectives of others, particularly those who are different, or those who do not think or share the same opinions and values we do. 

The Harvard Business School calls this System 1 thinking, meaning automatic judgement is formed, which stems from association stored in memory, rather than logically working through ALL available information. Obviously, this concept isn’t exclusive to schools. We’re probably all thinking about FaceBook right now.  (A little humor never hurt anyone, I suppose.) 

This concept is relevant threefold to the way we interact with one another in school settings: adults with adults, adults with children and children with children. A significant point to remember, children will most often mimic the behavior and model the culture established by the adults. Children enter school fairly innocent and accepting. Only as they grow do we see biases forming, primarily through parental, and other adult or societal influence, which includes life experience.  As educators and parents we are important!

The point is: if we are not aware of our “already always listening,” as actors with different experiences, our interactions can become a cautionary tale. It’s more than feelings hurt and friends lost: we are missing out on reading, comprehending, thinking and communicating at the deepest and highest levels. This ability impacts both relationships and learning!

We know our “already always listening” is present if we tend to read only material that supports our “already formed opinion”.  It’s easy to do.  On any given subject, one can locate a text, article, podcast, video, etc. to support his or her opinion and/or data.  Sadly, this concept is modeled beautifully by public leaders of nearly every social institution in our country, politicians and the media, which makes the challenge for our schools even greater.

Why does it matter?  I’ll go back to those three critical skills for reading and thinking.  There is a higher level challenge posed in analyzing a diverse perspective. The best debaters and the best persuasive writers understand thoroughly the argument of the opposing side. Consider also that purposeful focus on respectful language and honoring another’s viewpoint reinforces listening skills, critical to literacy development and communication skills.

We cannot erase our prior knowledge, nor is that what I’m implying.  We use our prior knowledge as the basis for all future learning.   

But here is what we can do:

• In our schools, our charge is to offer students both sides of the story and opportunities to experience multiple perspectives.  Provide a variety of  texts with diverse viewpoints.

• Provide opportunities for reflection after experiencing text on (1) the author’s perspective and how the author uses language and techniques to influence the reader and (2) how interaction with the text has impacted the student’s thinking.

• Set protocols for safe engagement in non-judgmental and non-stereotypical conversations.  Stereotyping crosses ethnicity, gender, religion, politics…whatever! No one owns a license in this category. 

• Seek common ground. Stop drawing a line in the sand!

• Be aware of your own “already always listening” in an intentional effort to be more accepting of “other actors”.