The voices of silence - Parables to teach values
Parables and stories
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In his extraordinary autobiographical work, I confess that I have lived, the Great Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, nobel prize for literature, tells the story of the Andalusian poet Pedro Garfias, one of many artists, intellectuals and workers who were forced to leave Spain after the Civil war and the triumph of Franco's anti-democratic forces.
Pedro Garfias came to give in exile to a Scottish castle. The owner of the castle was traveling and the poet lived virtually alone in this huge Castle. To make more bearable his solitude, I used to go every night to the nearby town Tavern, and as he didn't speak a word of English or any of the customers knew some Spanish, spent hours silently on its beer, pondering nostalgia and memories.
One night, when it was closing time and all customers, were marching the innkeeper gave a sign of to stay still for a while. His and a beer was served and thus were a long time side by side communicating deeply their silences.
For several days they continued this ritual of deep communication, until one day, Garfias couldn't hold the torrent of words that sprang him from the soul and told the bartender, who, without understanding the words, was listening and nodding excited their problems. When the poet ended, the innkeeper looked friend with strange words to the most hidden corners of your soul. And continued for several days listening to poorly understood, or better, meaning beyond the words, forged a friendship stronger than the language barriers. Garfias got visa to go to Mexico and the night before his departure were taking and firing at unknown words until the morning gave a few timid punches in the window.
Years later, the Andalusian poet confessed to Neruda:
-Never understood a word of what he told me, but when I heard it, I was always sure that understand it. And I know that when I spoke, he also understood what was trying to say.
To communicate is to open the soul. Frequently, we talk and we talk about but we don't communicate. We talk and words are traps that we hide. Words devalued, as worn currency, worthless, that runs from hand to hand. It is the commercial, political, and even emotional language: words, words, words, without soul, without truth. Words to catch, to seduce, to deceive, to dominate. Why so serious words like "I swear", "I promise", "I love you", "count on me", contain frequently lying, betrayal, abandonment, loneliness.
Modern technology has made most important medium as the message. Phones, fax, nor e-mail have helped us communicate better. We need to communicate when we are far away, but we are unable to tell us when we're together. It is not the same talk to say. Some talk a lot, but do not say anything: mere hollow, trivial chatter. Others, with very few words or even without words, express great feelings and ideas. People talk and talk, but rarely communicate their fears, anxieties, dreams... Live strangers in the same House, in the same bed, repeating empty rituals, listening silently to the TV, the most important character of the family.
If we want to understand and communicate with our students, educators must learn to listen to them. Listen to their silence, the pains of their souls, the cries of their insecurities and fears. Listen to what is expressed and what not expressed, what they say and what callan, pedagogical intangibles, which brought in from the House, the street, the family. Hear what they think, without saying so, as teacher or Professor, of matter, of the school. Knowing how to listen, to learn say, to overcome the pitfalls of the appearance of the communication. The word constructs reality. A word or a phrase, a gesture, can influence how the growth or stagnation of development processes affecting the learner.
To educate is to teach to listen to the silence to be able to hear the crying of flowers, rough stones voices, the sound of the waterfalls and torrents that tell us the mysteries and wonders of the universe with their lips of water. Listen to the silence as a place for reflection and thought and as an antidote against so much talk and so much trivial information. The voice of the silence is necessary educationally in a world full of noise, so progress towards a dialogue increasingly rich and humanized.
Listen to the silence as fruitful and germinador real words.
Translated for educational purposes.