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Jason Lilly

Teacher - English, West Virginia Department of Education

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Why should listening be taught as a skill in school?

Julian Treasure proposed an excellent problem in his video about listening. Why isn't listening taught in school? Young adults are surrounded by noise and distraction. Could this be an obstacle to problem-solving and mediation in our world? What do you think?

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Topics: education
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    Nino Dundua

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    Aug 24 2011: “The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them.”

    A powerful listener is someone who is able to focus on what another person is saying without getting distracted. A powerful listener has intense focus. A powerful listener is present in the moment of the conversation. Perhaps our reason for overlooking this skill is that it sounds so easy to achieve but in practice it is very difficult. It requires putting our own needs aside to listen to another.

    To achieve this requires ensuring that you are feeling confident about yourself and fully aware of your needs at that moment. It is far better to say that you are not able to listen to someone when you can’t than to fake it. This type of deception is picked-up immediately and any attempt at creating a trusting relationship may fail.
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      Frans Kellner 100+

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      TED Translator
      Aug 24 2011: Very well said Nino. Yet one needs to give energy to listen active what is too much to ask from a lot of people. It takes less energy as one is trained to listen what can be done simply by storytelling and singing or music classes. And foremost this has to start at an early age.

    • Ryan Persaud

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      Aug 24 2011: Inspiring Nino. but i was one of those bad listeners well because of the noise in our world today. My question is how to break a bad listening habit and develop a good one?

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