KEEPING QUIET

There are many kinds of quiet.

The awkward Did I really say that out loud? quiet.
The I don't know what to say next  because what you just said is so ridiculous quiet
The I am silenced by the beauty and magnificence I behold before me quiet.
The I am alone quiet.
The We are engrossed quiet.
The We are so close--so in tune that we can just be together without talking every minute quiet.

The  Everyone in the room is writing quiet.
And more...
There are many kinds of quiet.

 In The Quiet Book, Deborah Underwood  defines the many possible quiets we might experience as children (or still as adults) through out the day--from waking to going to bed at night.

First one awake quiet...Don't scare the robin quiet..Thinking of a good reason you were drawing on the wall quiet

Hide-and-seek quiet, Last one to be picked up from school quiet... Before the concert starts quiet .. Bedtime kiss quiet...

Sound asleep quiet

As I think about that  sound asleep quiet, I  am reminded of one of my all time favorite read-alouds, The Napping House by Audrey Wood.  The soft, soothing words that define a house "where everyone is sleeping"  read in a quiet voice rock us slowly and lull us.....

...And on that cat
there is a mouse,
a slumbering mouse
on a snoozing cat
on a dozing dog
on a dreaming child
on a snoring granny
in a cozy bed
in a napping house,
where everyone is sleeping

These words lull us...until the wakeful flea initiates a chain of events that is guaranteed to delight and amuse.

All those people and animals sleeping in the napping house reminds me of the scene Cynthia Rylant paints in The Relatives Came.  She beautifully captures the difference people make-- even the quiet of a whole house sleeping sounds different when the people sleeping there are new and different, yet close and familiar.

The relatives weren’t particular about beds, which was good since there weren’t any extras, so a few squeezed in with us, and the rest slept on the floor, some with their arms thrown over the closest person, or some with an arm across one person and a leg across another. It was different, going to sleep with all that new breathing in the house.

Sometimes the activity in which we are engaged requires our quiet participation.  In Owl Moon by Jane Yolen, another favorite read-aloud classic,  a young girl accompanies her father on a special walk through the moonlit woods to go owling.  After he hoots-- imitating the call of the Great Horned Owl  ... they wait in quiet anticipation for an echoing answer.

It was late one winter night, long past my bedtime, when Pa and I went owling.  There was no wind.  The trees stood still as giant statues.  And the moon was so bright the sky seemed to shine... 

... it was as quiet as a dream.  We walked on towards the woods, Pa and I.

...I never called out. If you go owling  you  have to be quiet, that's what Pa says.

 And finally, in his poem  Keeping Quiet, Pablo Neruda reminds us of the healing empowerment, the positive potential of quiet .  He invites us to a  collective quiet, a united and purposeful quiet in which might change the world.

...It would be an exotic moment without rush, without engines;we would all be together in a sudden strangeness....
...perhaps a huge silence might interrupt this sadness of never understanding ourselves
and of threatening ourselves with death...

You may read the entire poem,  Keeping Quiet here
You will find more poetry by Pablo Neruda here.

The next time you are quiet--- listen and name that quiet.
In the next quiet place--listen and define that quiet.
Shhhh........

You may want to read my related post Silences.

 Today's Deeper Writing Possibilities

There are many kinds of quiet.  Make a list of as many kinds as you can remember and imagine.
Create a poem using some or all of the items on your list.

Remember an activity in which you needed to be quiet.    Write a personal narrative about that time.

How does quiet empower/heal/change us?   Write a poem or essay to explain.

SILENCES

We are afraid of silence.

We rush to fill the void with music and chatter.

We get nervous if there are long pauses in conversations or if we are alone... waiting,  or if the air seems too still.

We rush and  scurry from one appointment to another meeting, from this event to the next activity.

We live in a hurry up-now-instant culture.  

Silence  isolates us and holds up the wall between us and the next guy.

Silence condones injustice, leaving  the perpetrators free to operate at will.

Silence hurts and offends.

We are afraid of silence.

But silence can be different.
Silence can be healing, healthy, and helpful.

Silence can be a space where we go to find ourselves, to mull over our current  situations,  past relationships, or coming events.

It can be the time when we silence both the voices in the world and the voices in our heads.

It can be the time when we are able to hear the sounds of silence--that quiet symphony drowned out and hidden by our constant noise.

I think about the silence in my car when I turn off the music and the talk on the radio.  In that ensuing quiet, I can plan entire workshops, outline a coming presentation, and generate new blog post ideas.

I can rehearse difficult conversations and rethink hard decisions.

In that quiet place, I can also pray without interruption, sinking into that sacred, hallowed silence......or I can just be in the silence.

Silence can be delicious.


As teachers, we often attribute silence to disinterest or inability in our classrooms. We develop strategies to make those reluctant students talk,  share,  and participate.

 Their silence translates as I don't know or I am resistant.

 Katherine Schultz acknowledges these potential reasons for silence, yet she also asks that we broaden our understanding of silence in our classrooms. We read and discussed a chapter from her book in the 2013 CAWP Summer Institute to help us consider new ways of thinking about silence.

In the forward to Schultz's book Rethinking Classroom Participation: Listening to Silent Voices, Ray McDermott  introduces a wider view of silence :

Schultz keys on five functions of silence in classrooms: resistance, reluctance, assertion, protection, and reflection...(she) names other kinds of silence as well, and the list can be expanded with every new situation, every new occasion for listening more deeply.  Bernard Sauenhauer (1980) identified intimate, liturgic and malign silences and celebrates the powerful "silence of the to be said."...... ( and ) what Zora Neal Hurston....called the " finished silence" (1937/1990) ( Schultz,x)

As we consider these broader definitions of  silence, Schultz also considers the roles and functions of silence as a way to participate in the classroom:

But were the students who were silent simply not participating?  Teachers often define classroom participation as a verbal response that fits into a routine or teacher-established pattern of classroom discourse.  Can students participate without speaking out loud?  Should educators consider the times that students give a silent assent to a question or thoughtfully jots notes for a future essay as participation? Are these useful forms of participating?   It is important to note that one student's silence can enable another student to speak.  Do students have a responsibility to contribute to the silence of the classroom so that others can talk, along with a responsibility to contribute verbally to the discussion?  How might silence be  reframed as a "productive or useful contribution to classroom discourse? (Schultz,3)

How does silence ebb and flow in our classrooms, in our daily lives, and in our world?

We often think of children as noisy creatures, playing and moving constantly.  But we can share the positives of silence with them. Silence by Lemniscates provides the perfect vehicle as it asks children, and children-at -heart, to ponder what we can hear when we are completely silent.   Take a peek at this beautiful book  to see  all that we notice when we silence our normal noise.


In the poem  "Keeping Quiet", Pablo Neruda calls us to a different kind of silence -- a collective silence, one in which we agree to be silent together, to stop moving, to do nothing in order to live, to "interrupt this sadness."  He considers silence healing and good. Click here to read Neruda's poem.

On a different note and surprisingly,  in response to cochlear implants, some members of the Deaf community prefer to remain in silence, valuing their non-hearing state, rather than considering it a disability.

What many hearing people might not realise is the strong community that exists in the silent world. In fact, it’s more than a community. Deaf people (with a capital D) see themselves more as an ethnic minority, with their own (sign) language, schools and proud history.

The National Association of the Deaf was created by deaf people to advocate for deaf rights in 1880. The Deaf don’t see deafness as a disability but a cultural identity (motto: different but not deficient). It’s a world so warm and welcoming, many wouldn’t want to become hearing, even given the choice.

Read the entire article, Why Not All Deaf People Want to Be Cured in The Telegraph 

Silence envelops us.

Silence envelops us 

in healing
and covers us
all-- in a veil
made of the universe
and drops us into
hallowed and
sacred space

Silence envelops us
in healing
and veils of living--
around our living
beside our living
inside our living

Silence envelops us.

Today's Deeper Writing Possibilities

Reflect on your own reactions and responses to silence.  When and where do you seek silence for yourself? When you are with others?

How can you foster silence and what are its  benefits?  

Write a personal essay considering the benefits of silence.

Write a poem about what you hear in the silence.