A Silent World

On the first day of Sal's class, he shook my hand, said, "Let's begin," and proceeded to sit in the back of the room silently, leaving all of us to ponder the meaning of life...and stare awkwardly at each other. In fact, I'm pretty sure my mind didn't wander any further than, "is this going to happen everyday...I need some coffee." After a few giggles, a single 'hello', and about 2 minutes, Sal addressed the awkward silence he had created. The class was able to determine that those 2 minutes were awkward because we all believed, 'let's begin' meant, 'sit down and be quiet, I'm going to teach now'. As it turns out, Sal is not a standard teacher; rather he wanted to show us that our expectations for a class already had us thinking sociologically.
However, is the awkward silence created in the classroom a product of the educational system, or the way the world has developed. I recently went to see Blue Man Group. The show begins with the Blue Men walking onto stage and standing there, silently. Much like in Sal's class, the crowd remained silent; everyone was waiting for them to start the show. One or two people cheered, but most of the crowd stared silently and awkwardly. In fact, the only time the crowd made any real noise was after one lost individual yelled, "GO PACKERS." The resounding gasp was quite audible. This silence results from the audiences' expectation for the Blue Men to entertain them. Nobody is getting their money's worth if we all sit there silently. In a private high school my friend attends, a teacher commented that the school needed to limit texting because the hallways were silent during passing periods. Students were interacting with other individuals and still silence prevailed. Even as I am sitting down to voice my opinions on silence I am blogging it silently with the world. In all these instances, silence seems to be logical. It really lets you analyze how awkward 3 blue performers are, it is unnecessary to talk to someone in the hall if someone you want to talk to more is sending you a text, and the world can read my blog. That doesn't mean they will.
Our society has become complacent to live in silence, but we all recognize that there is a need to fill the silence. In a classroom setting, blogging is a great idea. It truly does allow the student to reflect and share about a topic. However, in the real world something needs to be done about silence. I'm not suggesting we give every blogger a megaphone and tell them to 'get at it,' but we all need to recognize that a text message is not the same as a conversation over lunch, and not just because you don't get a sandwich with a text.