I want to learn to communicate effectively with everyone. My ideal career goal has variety of perspectives in which communicating with people from other cultures will be of great value. So, one of my goals for this class is to soak up as much information as possible and learn to apply it appropriately.
I have two WONDERFUL nephews ages 8 and 3. They are both autistic to a degree so communication with them is difficult at times. Actually, I find it challenging to converse with children in general so being with my nephews can especially tax me not just intellectually but emotionally as well. In every day functioning I am confident in my communication skills. But when I interact with my nephews I realize just how limited I truly am. I'm limited to communicating with people who are my peers, or who share my level of intelligence, or my religion or economic background, educational level, etc. I'm LIMITED! And that is incredibly emotionally frustrating. Therefore, my second goal of this class is to expand my communicational skills to people not like myself. I want to spend time with my nephews and make them smile. I want to give them what they need to feel loved and accepted. Most importantly, I want to enable their success as they grow within the world.This is what I had to say at the beginning of the semester when I discussed my goals for the class. I can say with confidence that I met these goals. Most of the class dealt with issues I already had a lot of thoughts and feelings on. These helped me firm up my perspectives or even ask new questions about them. Another part of the class dealt with topics I hadn't ever given much thought to, not because I didn't care, but because they are less immediate to me. At these times I became more aware of the world as a whole unit or how other parts of the world were so incredibly different from my own. Overall, I learned everything I wanted to and more from this class. It gave me confidence and awareness that I was lacking before.
On the other hand, now that I look on it in hindsight, there is one thing lacking: How to deal with those who are hostile to us. Whether they are against me personally for whatever reason or they are against one of my friends for whatever reason, what can I do? Of course I don't want to be overtly confrontational, but one of the main problems that I have realized throughout this class is that tolerating intolerance doesn't help the situation. That's almost as bad as being apathetic. So what can I do? What words can I say? I'm tired of just shaking my head and walking away from "haters". I'm tired of letting the "bullies" think they've won. But I don't want to start a fight or a battle or a war. I think that's one thing I would have liked to have discussed.
I am glad you met your goals, Kara. I am also glad that you felt this was a safe place to voice your opinions and concerns.
ReplyDeleteI think we did talk about how to deal with people who are 'haters' in most situations. We didn't spend an entire unit on it. But, part of that is because we really have to take each situation individually. Sometimes we just have to walk away because people get violent or insubordinate. We can't do a whole lot about those people because they aren't going to change (like the family member of mine that we talked about). However, in other situations having a calm conversation is a possibility. Sometimes we have to lay things out in black and white and show proof for people to understand. So there is no cut and dry answer. Every situation is different and needs to be treated appropriately.