Communication!?!

Communication - I teach it every day, and yet, at times, it becomes less accessible to me and my students, not more.

For example, there is nothing like repeating a concept we've gone over for two weeks to a sea of blank, helpless faces. Hey, it's 9:45 a.m., they shouldn't be sleepy, right? So, what gives?

Yes, I asked. I do teach communication. The answers mostly revealed, "We're listening, we're just not showing it." No kidding.

Later, while relating my frustrations to my colleagues, I jot this down on a lunch napkin: "If we don't care if they understand, why should they care to understand."

This is a breakthrough for me, especially as a fairly new college professor, and a person who cares far too much about getting it just right. My sole purpose (and soul, too) is to relate knowledge and stimulate learning and understanding. I take it very seriously. I hope my students feel the same way. But, I don't, EVERY day, and I guess, neither should they.

It goes back to remembering what it was like to be an 18-19-20-year-old, with obligations and frets and commitments and never enough time, money, energy.... It comes down to realizing we're all searching, hoping, dreaming, being, day-dreaming at any one given time.

They'll get it sooner or later, and so will I.