I find this statement to be alarmingly true. I myself have always felt more comfortable with speaking one on one and verbally rather than through the written word, but through writing we can usually reach a wider audience.
I went a bit further out of curiosity and found a short youtube video of the author giving a brief overview of why she wrote the book. She mentioned that it often begins in our childhood when external factors work to quiet our voice of dissent. I remember my own school experience as a child feeling like a sequence of remembering and regurgitating facts and having to give the "correct" answers rather than being asked to give a critical thought about a concept and to formulate and articulate my own ideas. This lead me to resist and reject traditional education for a number of years.
I think there are other institutional systems that are existing in a similar fashion. Systems that have relied upon doing things a certain way for so long that the players in the system don't even consider other options or methods. Finding a voice through writing can call out these systems and either introduce new ideas previously not thought of by others. I also think another possibility is giving a voice to concerns that others also have but they have not had the courage to stand up and address.
I've been using this blog so far as a place to do free writing and to put my thoughts down for others to see. This also helps me clear the cobwebs from my brain of being out of the loop of doing a great deal of writing and hopefully will clear the way to further insights.
I feel you make some great points here both at a personal and institutional levels. It is very true that writing can give you more thought and get everything out that you really want to say. Like from my experience I can write down what I want to say but I never really say it how I thought I would.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your honesty and find your words beautifully well-written. I know you stated you have always felt more comfortable with the verbal word but I would say you have a strength in the written word as well. I look forward to reading more from you. I enjoyed your comment about how you envision helping others that you are “passionate about walking along side of them in any support they need as they grow their own wings to fly.” Again a rather poetic way to say what I feel is an important way to help others and that is to let them tell you what they need and work with them to figure out how they are going to achieve it. I believe when you can help a person identify what they do well and work with them to make small improvements in their life towards the goals they have determined is important for them then you have a buy-in and a willingness to make a change.
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