The need to be right can arise from a fear of being disrespected. Or it may come out of the fear of being seen as we really are: as flawed human beings who are perfectly imperfect and full of contradictions and confusions.
We spend all our time teaching reading and writing. We spend absolutely no time at all, in most schools, teaching either speaking or, more importantly still, listening.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the lack of focus on speaking and listening skills in education, despite their importance.
Julian Treasure's quote highlights a significant gap in the traditional education system, where the emphasis is predominantly placed on reading and writing skills. He argues that while literacy is essential, equally vital are speaking and listening, which are often overlooked in school curricula. This lack of attention to oral communication skills may hinder students' ability to effectively express themselves and engage with others in meaningful ways.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about improving education, one could quote this to advocate for better communication skills training.
More from Julian Treasure
All quotes βYou can't truly listen to someone and do anything else at the same time.
The human voice: It's the instrument we all play. It's the most powerful sound in the world, probably. It's the only one that can start a war or say 'I love you.' And yet many people have the experience that when they speak, people don't listen to them.
Intention is very important in sound, in listening. When I married my wife, I promised her I would listen to her every day as if for the first time. Now that's something I fall short of on a daily basis.
Just three minutes a day of silence is a wonderful exercise to reset your ears and to recalibrate so that you can hear the quiet again. If you can't get absolute silence, go for quiet; that's absolutely fine.
People find birdsong relaxing and reassuring because over thousands of years, they have learnt when the birds sing, they are safe; it's when birds stop singing that people need to worry.
Similar quotes
Early childhood education is the key to the betterment of society.
The higher education system in these countries (US, Korea etc) has become like a theatre in which some people decided to stand to get a better view, promoting the others behind them to stand. Once enough people stand, everyone has to stand, which means no one is getting a better view, while everyone has become more uncomfortable.
I feel a kind of reverence for the first books of young authors. There is so much aspiration in them, so much audacious hope and trembling fear, so much of the heart's history, that all errors and shortcomings are for a while lost sight of in the amiable self assertion of youth.
The giving of love is an education in itself.
No two persons ever read the same book.
But one of the things I have learned during the time I have spent in the United States is an old African American saying: Each one, teach one. I want to believe that I am here to teach one and, more, that there is one here who is meant to teach me. And if we each one teach one, we will make a difference.