Should listening be taught in schools? Julian Treasure thinks so. Julian Treasure, the author of the book “Sound Business: How to Use Sound to Grow Profits and Brand Value”, thinks that listening should be taught in schools. He is of the opinion that education can be transformed in one generation through the application and utilization of sound listening techniques. Mr. Treasure stated, “We spend 60% of our communication time listening, however, we only retain just 25% of what we hear.” Listening is a process of extraction that allows us to make meaning from sound. Julian believes that because so few people are listening, the media is resorting to shouting and screaming to get our attention.
Here are the 5 ways Julian Treasure thinks that listening can be improved:
Listening Positions
I have freakishly small ears-maybe that is why my mouth is so loud. Try moving your head around to see whether or not that affects the way you are hearing what you want to hear.
Silence/Quiet
Listen to the sounds around you. Try to have at least three minutes per day of silence to re-calibrate, so that you can hear quiet again.
Mixer
Listen to how many channels of sounds you can hear. Here is a great exercise, enter any space and try to see whether or not you can identify all the sounds that you hear. If you are at school in your classroom, where are the various sounds coming from? This happened to me recently when I was trying to administer a reading assessment. My students were sitting at their desks, and it appeared as though I was hearing all the sounds in the world. Trying this exercise will improve the quality of your listening.
Savoring
Enjoy the mundane sounds wherever you are. Listen to the hidden choir….Mundane sounds can be interesting if you pay attention.
ACRONYM: RASA
Utilize RASA: Receive, appreciate, summarize and ask questions while you are being spoken to. RASA is a Sanskrit word that means juice or essence. This sort of reminds me of when I was growing up in the Baptist Church and the pastor would occasionally ask for an Amen from the congregation. Listen consciously in order to live consciously.
Julian Treasure, puzzled by the fact that listening is not taught in school stated:
“Why is it not taught? It’s crazy. And if we can teach listening in our schools, we can take our listening off that slippery slope to that dangerous, scary world that I talked about and move it to a place where everybody is consciously listening all the time — or at least capable of doing it.
Now I don’t know how to do that, but this is TED, and I think the TED community is capable of anything. So I invite you to connect with me, connect with each other, take this mission out and let’s get listening taught in schools, and transform the world in one generation to a conscious listening world — a world of connection, a world of understanding and a world of peace.”
Here is a video of his TED talk.
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