Loneliness, Openness to Inquiry, and Public Speaking

One of the things that struck me most keenly in the Kastely reading is how profoundly lonely is the person who is not willing to engage the other. Kastely notes that both Creon and Antigone, in the end, cannot get outside themselves, and that other protagonists in Sophocles' works seem to suffer similar fates. Martin Luther spoke of sin as being "incurvatus in se" - turned in on the self - a concept that seems to me underlying much of Kastely's reflections. Being willing to engage with the other means opening up and out, like a flower unfurling its petals to welcome the bee - engaging with one who is able to bring the germinating promise of pollen, but who also carries with it the possibility of a sting. If we are to be truly open to inquiry, to changing our mind, we will engage in a similar level of promise and risk.

For teaching Intro to Public Speaking, I have often noted that the more nervous a student it, the more likely they are to be locked into their own private world - so tied to their notes they could be giving the speech in an empty room, for all they are not engaging with the audience. Ironically, since they perceive that they are scared of the audience, they actually do better and have a better time when they look up and engage. It can take a while to convince them of that! Hayley is right that a significant teaching moment comes with the chapter on listening (and I admit, when I first taught Comm 1200, I wondered how in the world i was going to do an entire lesson on something we do all the time (HA - so I thought!) ). Public speaking is all about engaging with the other, even though it is one person who is (normatively) talking. The entire process that we teach our students is audience-centered. But that does not mean that we do not encounter the problems with argumentation that Kastely outlines, especially as the students work on their persuasive speeches. And, this semester, teaching a writing intensive, I see much the same issues as first-year composition teachers experience. Somehow, I want there to be space to talk about the underlying human/spiritual/ethical issue of engaging the other, being open to the process, and getting out of the self. The Comm Dept and I both hope that, once I pass comps, I will be able to teach Comm Ethics. Something tells me I am going to be engaging these issues!