Silence

On the first day when our teacher tried the silent treatment on us-- I (and I think many other kids) felt very awkward. We all felt this way because normally a teacher is supposed to walk in the room, tell us to be quiet, and take charge immediately to keep us all on task. Teachers don't normally sit back and let us sit in silence for awhile. Since this was such an extreme change of pace, I think a lot of us didn't know what to do so we just sort of sat there and stared at each other awkwardly. Most people experience awkward silences in their life and we're conditioned to think that we're supposed to fill that silence with words quickly to keep conversation going. This might have some affect on our listening abilities because not all silences are awkward-- sometimes their just times for us to take in what was said and think about it. So yes, I see how we've been trained to expect certain things because we all grew up in a system and we're expected to follow that way of doing things. I think the media is a great example of how we're trained to think. We're constantly being brainwashed to think,dress, and act a certain way because of what we see on TV and the magazines.