The issue

The following paragraphs list citations of my most up-to-date sources, in addition to my interpretations of every source’s major points:

Educational discussions about silence appear to become erroneous and one-dimensional, treating the absence of talk because of the consequence of disciplinary action only. In modern discussions about multi-cultural education, educators ought to re-think the uncomplicated dichotomy of silence versus speech and challenge the primacy of speech. Technological advancements in modern industrial society are particularly strong lures that result in persons of developed nations to avoid silence and to justify intolerance of silence.

Mass media and computer-mediated communication systems consistently erode and destroy silent spaces at the public level, therefore creating it almost impossible for men and women to learn how you can appreciate silence, either by themselves or within the presence of other individuals. Americans are a nation of “space pluggers” and “gap fillers”, each in education and in life, as we obsessively fill what we assume are empty spaces and empty sound gaps with the perpetual flux of objects and decibels.

The idea of “cooperative learning” has grown to be the dominant idea in mainstream teacher education. When teachers, in classroom settings, use the notion of “participation” as a measure of student participation, they inevitably condition students in the belief that silent, active listening is just not a legitimate form of “participating.” The speech might be systematically distorted, consciously, or unconsciously, to offer some groups or people extra importance than other individuals. “… the dichotomization of silence and speech misleads us to devalue silence and privilege speech… I contact for recognition in the need to dismantle this false dichotomy and to create a pedagogical understanding of silences.” (p. 162)

Emphasizing speaking is a system of enforcing the “silencing of silence”, which perpetuates the false notion that speaking … Continue reading >>>