Sound of Silence Kids will say school is boring. Tedium is a byword for church sermons.

Even university students will often be less than enthused by their lectures. There are always exceptions, of course, and these will be instructive. But why, with all the preparation and effort that goes into them, do we still hear these traditional complaints? I am sure that often its just a stock response that says I dont want to talk about it. Youre boring too. Cant you find something more interesting to ask me? But insofar as its a real experience I dont believe said teachers, priests and professors are simply incompetent. I also believe that some of the most acclaimed lessons, sermons and lectures can be no more than exercises in showmanship, the style remembered but not the substance. I do not mean to impugn the skills of my many friends in schools, churches and universities. Indeed, I have seen a great deal of marvellous teaching that is highly effective within its own constraints. Its those constraints I am interested in. . Let me explain. The schoolroom, the church and lecture hall have one thing in common. They all place an authority figures at the front and expect knowledge and understanding to be transmitted to a passive audience of spectators. That requires sustained attention and concentration for unfeasibly long periods of time. Its essentially a one-way process. Certainly I oversimplify. For following a train of thought is itself a form of participation, just as is reading a book. Its just that we are cussed creatures who like to have our say. Dont teachers in school wage a continuous war on talking (excepting only their own)? And what about Mr Speaker in the House of Commons with his continual Order! Order!? We must face it. People dont generally like listening. They prefer talking. So even casual conversation often amounts to one person talking while the others cant wait to get in. Discussion becomes a contest to get a hearing. The trouble is when you do get your hearing no ones listeningthey are thinking up their own next intervention! I admit that life is not one long discussion group in which earnest seekers after truth try to arrive at rational solutions to everything. But nor is it one big party in which a good time can be measured in decibels. There are times when listening is important. Doctors, counsellors, priests, parents and partners-all of us need first to listen before we act. And to listen carefully for what is said is not always what is meant. All talk emerges from a deep background of silence. There are many different forms of silence, which is not merely the absence of noise. For example, there are shocked silences, as when something shattering has been said or done; anticipatory silences as when the conductor raises his baton or the starter his gun; and smouldering, sullen silences as in a prolonged quarrel between friends. There is at the back of all things the stilled silence of the kind Quakers seek in Meeting for Worship. From such a silence there can emerge things that are truly important to say. Such things are for hearing not for discussion.