“You’re not allowed to talk.” These are five words I’m sure any teenager would dread to hear. Upon hearing this, many would laugh with a smart remark of “psh yeah right” under their breath. Unfortunately though, we had to live this horrid forecast for a whole school day. My first encounter with the no-talking rule was with Mr. Kearney in the early morning of Friday before anyone was at school yet. Every morning Mr. Kearny passes by my locker as I unload my books and always greets me with a bright smile and a cheerful “Well good morning Ashley!” Following this, we usually have a recap of how our nights were and such. As I walked into school and started unloading my books I saw nobody was there yet so I quickly threw my books in hopes that I could hurry to the bathroom in hopes to avoid any temptation of early morning conversation. Upon throwing my books, a binder managed to slip out of my arms and spilt all of its contents onto the floor. As I franticly began picking up the mess, I saw Mr. Kearny walk through the door towards me for a good morning. He asked his usual “how are you” and I remained quiet giving him a thumbs up. Not taking the silence, he continued asking how my snow days were and of course, I wasn’t allowed to answer. Thinking something was wrong, his grin turned into a concerned frown. Not wanting to ruin his day, I led him to the office, where my dad was residing for the moment. I had him explain the situation and Mr. Kearny then understood my unusual silence.
When reading chapter two over the weekend, I was brought back to this morning scene when I saw Postman’s idea that “the concept of truth is intimately linked to the biases of forms of expression” on page 22. People all too often overlook the truth found in simple expressions. Every morning I simply talk to Mr. Kearny aside from expressing how I really feel each morning. He had to discover how my day was not from the usual words I present him with, but by my expressions, which in the end give more truth than words. Its harder to lie through expressions than it is through words, which I believe is Postman’s overall point in chapter two.
Although Friday’s lesson did teach me this lesson, I did find it hard to rely on simply expressions and illustrations. I never realized how much I do only use my words and almost dread, but also in a way, cant wait for the next time that I lose my voice.
When reading chapter two over the weekend, I was brought back to this morning scene when I saw Postman’s idea that “the concept of truth is intimately linked to the biases of forms of expression” on page 22. People all too often overlook the truth found in simple expressions. Every morning I simply talk to Mr. Kearny aside from expressing how I really feel each morning. He had to discover how my day was not from the usual words I present him with, but by my expressions, which in the end give more truth than words. Its harder to lie through expressions than it is through words, which I believe is Postman’s overall point in chapter two.
Although Friday’s lesson did teach me this lesson, I did find it hard to rely on simply expressions and illustrations. I never realized how much I do only use my words and almost dread, but also in a way, cant wait for the next time that I lose my voice.
Your absolutely right! It is way to easy for us to "overlook the truth found in simple expressions" and not realize what is actually going on.
ReplyDeleteAshley, I thought your blog was very truthful. When someone tells us that we have to go a whole day without talking, it is dreadful to hear. It is much harder than it sounds. Also your story of Mr. Kearney and you made me laugh. Kudos.
ReplyDeleteI like your stories in your blog, to be exact the Mr.Kearney story sounded funny. Although people did not understand you at times, it felt nice to have an excuse to not talk in class also.
ReplyDeleteI like that you pointed out that many of us did not think that Mr. Brandt was serious about not talking for a day. Also that we did not believe it would be that hard but were shocked at the difficulty.
ReplyDeleteOverlooking the truth...that is a wise statement.
ReplyDeleteI like your stories in your post Ashley. :) I agree with your title the most though..If i lost my voice I would hate to try to communicate with others because it was so difficult on Friday.
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