Active Listening at a Parent-Teacher Association Meeting - Essay Example

?Active Listening at a PTA Meeting For this particular assignment, I found myself attending a Parent-Teacher Association meeting on behalf of my cousin whose job as a flight attendant prevented her from attending her son's PTA conference scheduled over the past Friday night. The conference was held in the homeroom classroom of my nephew. The school desks were taken out of the classroom at the Mother Goose Playschool and Grade School Internationale and were replaced with plastic guest chairs while a modified podium was set up in the center of the room where the teacher's table was formerly placed. For this particular meeting, the teacher's table was set off to a side of the room to hold the laptop and projector that would be used for the power point presentation later on. Anticipation built up as to who would be the speaker for the night as the parents and teachers began to trickle into the classroom. There were rumors that the school Principal, Ms. Berry would be addressing the parents directly due to the need for financial pledges in the improvement of the private school facilities. I noticed that most of the parents seemed to have been coming in directly from work, some still dressed in their office uniforms or looking haggard as they ran from an office meeting to the PTA conference. I chose to attend this particular event because I knew that the people who would be in attendance would already be distracted by either their exhaustion from a busy day at the office, or their desire to get home as soon as possible in order to attend to their household and parental duties. From what I observed of the attitude of the people gathered in that classroom that evening, they wanted to be anywhere but at the school at that very moment. It seemed obvious to anyone observing the group such as myself, that this was one group that was not in the mood to listen to anything the speaker of the night had to say. Once the school principal arrived, it became fairly obvious that the rumors were true and she would be taking to the stand in order to address the parents. Knowing very well that I would have to report about the meeting to my cousin upon her arrival, I began preparing myself to become an effective listener based upon the principles outlined in our book. DeVito clearly outlined the principles of listening within the pages of our textbook. So I made sure to follow the principles he indicated that include (DeVito 90): Avoid interrupting the speaker Give supportive listening cues Show empathy with the speaker Maintain eye contact Give positive feedback Avoid distractions I knew that I had to actively listen to the speaker in order to ask the proper questions during the question and answer period. Active listening is of the utmost importance when listening to a speaker because the response of an active listener will include a “process of sending back to the speaker what you as a listener think the speaker meant - both in content and feelings”. As DeVito so clearly explained it (91): “Active listening then, is not merely repeating the speaker's exact words, but rather putting together into some meaningful whole your understanding of the speaker's total message.” In other words, by totally dedicating myself to listening to the speaker, I will be able to gain an uncanny insight into what the true meaning of his words are and in exchange, be able to relate it to the big picture as I see or understand him as he describes it. It is easy to understand the importance of active listening in terms of asking probing or clarification questions of the speaker when the opportunity comes up. If one us unable to actively listen to a speaker, then he or she will have failed at the most important aspect of listening, that of learning what is being spoken about and showing a form in interest in the discussion as the speaker conveys his points. Inactive listening as this type of listening has become known as (Devito 91) shows a grave disrespect for the sentiments and thoughts of the speaker. It trivializes the points that they wish to make and delivers the message that nobody is interested in what they have to say. Although active listening is a requirement expected of all participants in a meeting, anybody who has to sit down for 30 minutes or more and listen to a person ramble on about topics that the listeners may or may not actually care about needs to have a pretty good reason to do so. Therefore, I believe that active listening is directly connected with the enthusiasm and creativity of the person doing the talking as well. Let us not forget, that the vocal tone of a speaker has the ability to encourage active participation from his audience, or put them into deep slumber as he drones on and on in his monotone voice about whatever it is that he was trying to tell his listeners about. In the case of Ms. Berry, she came well prepared to bring her audience to rapt attention as she delivered her speech about the need for a fund raising project to help install a new heating system in the school since the old system was already showing signs of severe aging and, according to the repair people, may very well be irreparable in the very near future. Ms. Berry as a speaker made sure that she had the proper posture as she stood at the podium and made eye contact with various audience members whenever possible. She encouraged the audience to listen to what she had to say by letting them feel that she was speaking solely to each and every one of them whenever the opportunity arose. Thus creating the perfect setting for an active listening bunch of tired parents in the audience. It is important to note however, that although the enthusiastic members of the audience were busy nodding their heads and taking notes as part of the reference material for the question and answer portion of the meeting that came after the speaker address, there were also the bored out of their skull participants who really wanted nothing more than to go home. The bored out of their skull participants are the ones who had a tendency to doze off as Ms. Berry emphasized certain points using a power point presentation. While the others who were part of the bored group whipped out their android phones and got busy with God knows what as they prayed that time would simply fly by fast enough. Those who were extra tired from a long day at the office could not help but yawn in public and cover their mouths. Sometimes, they would even go as far as rubbing their eyes to stay awake throughout the meeting. If there was ever a vote for the most disinterested group, the eye rubbers would have won hands down. I guess there is no such thing as the perfect Parent-Teacher Association meeting because of the time when the meeting usually takes place. Known as the Witching Hour the participants truly have a hard time remaining interested in the topics for discussion at the meeting due to their lack of physical energy. Although they did their best to remain engaged in the discussion, there were simply some instances beyond their control. However, those who managed to remain active participants in the meeting managed to get the work that needed to be done accomplished during that meeting. They actively participated in the group discussion after the speech and brought up salient points for clarification that allowed Ms. Berry to clarify certain misconceptions, misgivings, and misunderstandings about what it was that she school wished to do for the children during the spring semester. It was a very civil and highly educated exchange of ideas that surely led to the further enhanced benefits of the students while in school. In the end, I learned that I can easily become an inactive listener because I belong to a generation that is somewhat impatient when it comes to dealing with people on a face to face basis. However, when confronted with an active listening group that encourages the full participation of the group members, regardless of their listening skills, I actually emerged as an active listener who takes great pride in participating in the discussions set before the association. Works Cited DeVito, Joseph. Human Communication: The Basic Course. Massachusetts: Pearson Education, 2006. eBook. Read More