LET US TRAIN LISTENERS!

I am hampered by an inability to sit and convert my thoughts to words and stories. I feel like life will happen and I will miss it. Which is why having a blog is strange cos those who do have time to sit and write and keep them running. This is the closest to an apology I can muster for those who follow my blog and read my posts.

Thank you, I appreciate you but I just have a need to put it all out there as soon as I can, which is why Facebook and Twitter mostly swallow my thoughts before they become blogposts. I am making an attempt to write this post but if I tell you my circumstances right now, you will be rolling on the floor laughing….Iet me try.

So, I am sitting in my car in a car park at work. I just had a breakfast of cereal and chocolate (thou shalt not judge me!) and I am waiting for it to be 9am when I have clinics with students for a couple of hours (it is usually 4hours but they have an awareness program on Rabies today so we will end at 11am). I am too lazy to go up four flights of stairs to my office for the 1hour or so that I usually have to wait for this class (been here since after school run which was early this morning & so joyous! We sang GodWin and I attempted to mimic Don Jazzy’s raspy voice but was so bad, Lil Miss threatened to call him up and report me!).

So, my blogpost is about listening. I am sick and tired of how unable to listen we are as a people. And by people, I mean majorly, humans. The reason I make this sweeping statement is that we show our inability to listen by our actions which consist largely of inability to follow instructions!

This is a rant about my frustrations about my students but I find that it applies to society in general. Yesterday, I had a practical class with fourth year students, an Introductory Surgery class and was supposed to introduce them to Orthopaedic instruments. The week before, we had looked at Soft Tissue Surgery instruments. Due to an emergency Caesarian operation, my colleagues had to be in the theatre and rather than cancel class, I decided I would take on the entire class of 80 something students in batches of twenty.  From the first batch, we got into that argument about the students being too focused on writing stuff down rather than listening. I was not amused! By the third group, I was ready to pull out my hair. There was one student who hardly even looked up at all. Here I was, standing there trying to make them understand how these gory looking tools are used intraoperatively and rather than look at them with fascination, this one was trying to write every word I was saying down. Of course I was angry.

I am sure by now, the students have told themselves about that crazy lady who will come to class and insist you listen. She will not let you write. And when you do, she gets angry. I get angry because I know the writing does not get read and so the productive listening time just gets wasted is all.

Ok, I always ask them this. How many times have you read the notes you take in church over? Very few people do! Your pastor could preach the exact same sermon with the exact same scriptures and you’d be too busy writing to remember it was the same thing you heard before (I do not discount the spiritual concept of scripture being able to be new each time we hear it but you sha get my drift?).

Being mischievious as I am, I had included a piece of equipment I had showed them the week before and every single time I asked what it was, they stalled. It was my way of demonstrating to them that listening would serve them better than writing.

This is an appeal of sorts that everyone involved in nursery, primary and secondary education, please help me by developing listening skills in your students. Please! Stop threatening that they must give you back the notes you gave them verbatim and killing their ability to listen. It is this singular thing that breeds closed minded people who are unable to think rational thoughts. They form opinions from what others say and refuse to examine the evidence for themselves.

I had a wonderful time teasing a dear child who had an agenda of her own when I was asked to give her a bath. She reeled out all the instructions that would ensure the bath was to her own satisfaction and I ignored all and gave an effective bath as far as I was concerned. When we finished and I asked how I had done. She assured me she had had a good bath but was frustrated because ‘ you don’t listen! And you don’t follow instructions!’ I laughed because I had gotten the scoop from her mum about how it would go if I allowed her to ‘instruct’ me.  But it made me realize that too many people do not listen or follow instructions merely cos they had other instructions. Teachers owe a debt to their students of stirring them up to think as against merely cramming notes and regurgitating same to pass. We should educate, not just pass our students!

Eriola….I am listening now. I still have issues following instructions!

PS- I am sitting here in my clinics, listening to my Grad student put my undergrad students through their paces reading radiographs. I love my work, can you tell?

And I am unable to write and mull over what I have written. Too, off the cuff for that. Some call it being flighty....do I care?