Why Education Is Important

Find a Child Therapist

Think back to the hours you spent learning to speak.

Speech therapy in elementary school, if you needed it. Book reports at the front of the room. Debate team for some of us. The public speaking unit in tenth-grade English. PowerPoint slide decks in college and every year after that into the workplace. Somewhere in there, you probably picked up a book or read a blog on public speaking — they never leave the bestseller lists. Think about the culture’s worship of the TED Talk, the Moth story hour, or other examples of “The Sage on the Stage.”

Now consider the hours you spent learning to listen. For most of us, it’s about zero. A few of us got lucky — therapists, some coaches, a few others. Maybe you read an emotional intelligence book or sat through a corporate workshop on active listening where you practiced nodding and smiling.

And notice what that workshop actually taught you. Maintain eye contact. Orient your body toward the speaker. Mirror their posture. Reflect back what you heard: So what I’m hearing is… These are great instructions for looking like a good listener. Which raises the obvious question nobody in the workshop asks: why learn to look like you are paying attention when you know actual attention isn’t about performing?

Listening turns out to be one of the better........

© Psychology Today