Serendip is an independent site partnering with faculty at multiple colleges and universities around the world. Happy exploring!

You are here

Postcard

Khadijah_'s picture

After reading the first few poems in "What to Eat, What to Drink, What to Leave for Poison", I was drawn to two poems, "Language" and "Concordance". In both of these poems the ways in which we used or didn't used words seemed to be important. What struck me the most about the Language poem was that the first line was about silence. I think that the word silnece hold a lot of weight. We oftentimes talk about silence in social just as taking away or denying someones voice or experience. In our talks about mindfulness, silence is a way to create stillness and reflection. In this poem however, silence becomes apart of speech, apart of the language that we use. I think that as we move through this course, taking up an appreciation for the natural silence in the world will help us think more about how language (verbal and noverbal) influences learning and how an acknoweledgement of natural silence can be empowering to people who prefer not to speak.

Comments

alesnick's picture

I appreciate the term "natural silence."  Including it within the spectrum of holistic education and acknowledging it as preference, as choice, is definitely important.  Sometimes, too, not speaking or not responding to something is the only possibility when the terms of engagement are disagreeable or disrespectful, and when time is needed to ripen that.  

Dana's picture

How can we acknowledge that students both have the right to speak and not speak?