Sunday, August 31, 2008

Touro Communication Club Notes #40
tourocommunicationclub.blogspot.com
August seems to be a month for historic events. The 19th Amendment recognizing Women’s Suffrage and Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I have a Dream Speech” are two of this month’s momentous happenings. The specter of the possible landfall of Hurricane Gustav on a date close to the catastrophic Hurricane Katrina arrival (8/29) three years ago is incredibly dreadful.

The Democratic convention speeches – Obama, Clinton, Clinton and Obama – will be followed on Monday by the Republican convention speeches – McCain and Sarah Palin, a newcomer on the national political scene. McCain’s choice of Governor Palin completes the ground-breaking nature of this Presidential campaign - an African-American from Hawaii, a white woman from Alaska. A first on four counts especially since Alaska and Hawaii are the last two states to be admitted to the United States and neither one is contiguous to mainland U.S. The fall campaign promises some exciting debating. We have to keep our listening and critical thinking wits about us.

From a Communication viewpoint, all four Democratic speeches were “stem-winders” – a speech that knocks the socks off its already biased audience. It is rare, in my experience, that so many speakers in one party have extraordinary persuasive skills. In next week’s Republican convention, I hope that the rhetorical riches continue.
In 2004, the Department began its Presidential Debate series with the Bush/Kerry debates followed by a critical analysis. Now in 2008 with the formation of the Communication Club, we will continue our playing and studying the Presidential debates. In addition we will be co-sponsoring with Mr. Mason’s Site Director’s office a Debate and Presidential Politics film series. – see below.

Don’t forget that Ramadan – one of the five pillars of Islam – begins on Monday, September lst and runs through September 30. Ramadan is a Muslim religious observance that takes place during the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, believed to be the month in which the Qur'an (Koran) began to be revealed. It is the Islamic month of fasting, in which Muslims don't eat or drink anything from dawn until sunset. Fasting is meant to teach the person patience and humility. Ramadan is a time to fast for the sake of God, and to offer even more prayer than usual. Also, asking forgiveness for the sins of the past, asking for guidance in the future, and asking for help with refraining from every day evils and try to purify oneself through self-restraint and good deeds is involved in Ramadan. (cf.: Wikipedia)

Here's our schedule: (We are now in Room 610 @ 50 West.)

Wednesday, September 3, 2008 - 1 pm - Debate – We’ll discuss our fall plans while SPAR-ing. Everyone seems to find the sessions very exciting

The SGS Student Orientation is scheduled for Wednesday, September 10th @ 2 pm in Room 314 @ 27 West.. Since Lorinda, James and Shile are involved with the presentation, we will skip our club meeting for this week.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008 – 2 pm Room 610 (Note time and place change). Club
– Open agenda for the moment – Possible topics: continuation of the Story telling/ Leadership discussion, the Presidential campaign, etc. There will be an upcoming film series c o-sponsored by the Club and Mr. Mason’s office on Debate and Presidential Politics. Possible films might be “The Great Debaters” (2008) with Denzel Washington, “Recount” (2008), a fictionalized documentary about the 2000 election with Kevin Spacey and “The Candidate” (1972) with Robert Redford.

What happened on August 26 – Richard Green – “Leadership through Storytelling

Present – Kazi Faltah, Richard Green, David Nussman, James Millner, Lorinda Moore Hal Wicke and Olushile Akintade.

Richard began his presentation with a comment quoted from the title of a book of short essays by Robert Fulghum first published in 1986: "All I Really Need To Know I Learned in Kindergarten." In preparing his TESOL class in Oral English this summer, he had to relearn how to teach through storytelling, K-8. This endeavor raised his awareness on many levels of the power of story telling for all age groups.

Richard showed a small chalkboard with “Leadership through Storytelling” on one side and “Managing Expectations” on the other. On his laptop he played a Charlie Rose program (Channel 13 weeknights @ 11 pm) where various journalists commented on Michelle Obama’s speech on the opening night (8/25/08) of the Democratic Convention in Denver.

He pointed out that the Democrats emphasized “Patriotism, Family & Faith.” He handed out an essay, “Articles of Faith.” He said that personal history matters.

Other handouts included: "Reading and Interpreting Body Language," and, "What Your Voice Says About You,
"

He said that story telling is very transformative. He felt that Michelle Obama gave Barack Obama a face to his voice, particularly in the segment where Barack was shown with his children after his wife’s speech. Another handout listed the many kinds of stories we could choose.

There was some discussion about filters, hearing titles and religious overtones. Richard pointed out that Garrison Keillor was a storyteller who did not follow the prescribed model of what a storyteller “should” be. Comments were made about how the presentation of the Code of Conduct was presented in the wrong way.

Richard urged the group to celebrate the wealth of common experience each of us possesses before trying to understand others’ diversity.

Kazi noted about the British influence in Bangladesh making people conscious of who the citizens were. But in America, we are more aware than anyone else. Richard reminded the group of E.B. White’s essay on the 3 kinds of New Yorkers – native, moved to NYC and the immigrant population. Kazi was concerned that Americans get lazy because they don’t exercise their privileges. E.B. White wrote in the first paragraph of "Here is New York:"

"There are roughly three New Yorks. There is, first, the New York of the man or woman who was born there, who takes the city for granted and accepts its size, its turbulence as natural and inevitable. Second, there is the New York of the commuter--the city that is devoured by locusts each day and spat out each night. Third, there is New York of the person who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something. Of these trembling cities the greatest is the last--the city of final destination, the city that is a goal. "


Lorinda characterized a person by their “swagger” – how each person exemplified their individual style by how he/she showed their “swagger.” “Following is not a swagger,” she said. Shile commented on his SPAR debate last week, interpreting the “Flies/honey vs vinegar” cliché in a Nigerian context. Lorinda recalled the unexpected behavior of football player, Rosie Grier, contrasting his burly frame with his interest in knitting.

Many other topics included Richard reminding us of the power of story telling, masks and facades and sharing our identity with our stories.

The session closed with each of the group sharing a personal story. Lorinda, James, Kazi, Hal, Shi le, David and Richard shared stories. Rather than recounting each one, let it be said that everyone was charmed, amused, touched and warmed by the distinctiveness of each of the stories.

Lorinda remarked how much she felt the bond among the group that was heightened by the stories. The stories made her experience everyone in a different way.

Shile muttered under his breath to Hal that he didn’t think the faculty would share a story. Hal expressed surprise. Shile said he needed to think about why he thought they wouldn’t.

We’ll get back to you on this.
See you next time. Bring a friend!

Hal Wicke

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Touro Communication Club Notes #39
tourocommunicationclub.blogspot.com

Personal news: after a traumatic week, the computer was restored to its original condition with all the data saved. Andrea found a computer wizard in Valley Stream.

Well, we now have a Democratic VEEP candidate just before the Democratic convention begins on Monday in Denver. Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware seemed to be preferred by the media pundits to add foreign policy experience to the resume of Senator Obama. One Fox commentator said that Obama had the thinnest resume for any President in the history of the country. Does anyone want to verify THAT assertion?!

The McCain folks immediately issued an attack ad showing Biden saying that Obama had no experience when they were in the long Democratic candidate debate cycle. How the Obama campaign will counter these attack ads will be interesting to watch.

The Beijing Olympics continue to fascinate me because politics still have an impact on this world exhibition of elite athleticism. We can learn from how athletes think and train. “Focus” seems to be the trait that all of us can learn from these athletes.
Politics and sports offer important lessons for Communicators. Politics provides a smorgasbord of predictable and unpredictable human interactions while sports is relatively clean and structured with a referee interpreting “rules.” Most of life doesn’t have a referee in all situations. We have to be skilled in our human communication because we meet so many different people in a Touro day who have different beliefs, perceptions and ways of behaving.

Here's our schedule: (We are still in Room 615.)

Wednesday, August 27, 2008 - 1 pm - Club - Leadership. This is a huge topic which is a natural extension of our two sessions on Persuasion.

Classes begin on Wednesday, September 3, 2008 but we will continue our sessions at 1 pm, moving to Room 610.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008 - 1 pm - Debate – We’ll discuss our fall plans while SPAR-ing. Everyone seems to find the sessions very exciting.

What happened on August 20 – Debate – SPAR and Shile’s presentation
We were excited to see Drani Gabu return from his cross-country ventures. While he wrote back with this entry:

"It's ok to put those questions on the blog for Club members and visitors to comment on. I found it interesting to be "intellectually cornered" by white folks in this part of the country who have very limited contact with minority populations. When the first question started flying on my face, I developed instantly a plan to lay their fears to rest and win them over instead of going-all-out on offensive because there was resistance and lack of information ( at some quarters). I understand that people are highly sensitive to where you talk from, especially when status dynamics are at play: urban Vs small town, college student Vs real-life-educated, etcetera. Some folks have negative views about affirmative action and reparation to blacks while other white folks do not have the luxuries those in the inner city "enjoy"( ghetto life style). I found myself talking about topics that have negative repercussions and divide the country. Rather than arguing an analyst's view of the adverse impact, I spoke directly to them about my experience in the US and Baker City because real-life stories and testimonies win over abstract speculations. I listened to their views and counter- arguments. I drew up point-by-point responses. I tailored my points to the root drivers of their opposing views, provided valid alternatives to meet their argument and I invited some for beer to advance the debate and enlist support from initially reluctant allies. At the end of two debates, I bridged the degree of separation.
They took me around to see trailer homes at different locations where familys' hopelessness are registered on their faces. I saw the reason why some are indifferent to affirmative action. But some confessed that they voted for Obama in primaries. The dialogue is still continuing. I hope it shall end in a "marriage" of opposing views and understanding."

Your secretary was late because of the computer repair. Before he arrived, Shile had presented his “sales pitch” he was going to give to his church congregation about how wonderful his book was (and please buy it!). I heard the critique was very straight forward and exciting.

Olushile Akintade and Jetante Morris were engaged in a SPAR debate topic “It is easier to catch flies with honey than with vinegar.” Shile took the Affirmative and Jetante took the Negative. Shile told me later he misunderstood the idiomatic English saying and based his interpretation on his Nigerian background. Jetante valiantly tried to counter Shile’s argument, but said later, “I don’t know what I was saying.” The group voted 4-1 for Shile’s Affirmative argument.

The “judges” were Drani Gabu, Lorinda Moore, James Millner, Carlisle Yearwood, David Nussbaum and Richard Green. As usual, Hal Wicke just asked a lot of questions.

Each person made an individual observation of the debate. The comments were helpful.

  • Stay on topic.
  • Keep focus.
  • Organize your thoughts.
All these are wonderful generalizations, but the question is HOW, HOW, HOW???

We need to continue to work hard on the HOW.

James made an interesting observation about when he was debating how he would get off topic by following the lead of the speaker before him. Very easy to do, but difficult to fix. As the driver of a car would do, you keep your eye on the road. If the car in front of you goes into a ditch, you don’t follow. This is the essence of “Defensive Driving” and “Critical Thinking.” With SPAR debate practice, you quickly learn to be an independent thinker.

See you next time. Bring a friend!

Hal Wicke

Monday, August 18, 2008

Touro Communication Club Notes #38
tourocommunicationclub.blogspot.com

If this edition of the club notes seems peculiar, it is because I'm writing it write on the email, not as a Microsoft document. Why? because my computer crashed last Thursday and my resourceful wife, Andrea, has dropped everything to try to repair the situation - without success.

This saga will soon resolve itself when some computer wizard appears to wave his/her magic wand. Just don't hold your breath.

In the meantime, I've been watching too much of the Beijing Olympics, the McCain/Obama interviews by Pastor Rick Warren plus other reading material. (I've also been ironing my shirts, clearing out old files - all this to keep occupied while Andrea was breaking her brains trying to get a handle on this omniscient, omnipresent and seemingly omnipotent bloody virus.)

From the Olympics, you probably observed unusual swimming prowess with Michael Phelps (a new record of 8 medals). He says he just "sleeps, eats and swims." How many people are willing to narrow their focus to basics in order to win Olympic gold? Will you do that for your goal? A challenging question.

From the McCain/Obama interview, it was easy to observe the radically different speaking styles of each candidate. Obama was thoughtful. McCain was crisp. Judging by their applause, the audience seemed to favor McCain. I wonder whether the differing styles of informal speaking will be a factor in how people vote. Again, much to discuss.

A last item strikes a personal note. Obama went home to Honolulu for a week's vacation with his family. The New York Times ran a photo of him and his girls eating "shave ice," an Hawaiian junk food on every street corner analogous to the hot dog carts in Manhattan. That picture was a nostalgic moment for me. But some quarters of the media questions his going to Hawaii as "exotic" and unusual. The ABC reporter Cokie Roberts asked "Why didn't he go to Myrtle Beach (SC) like other Americans? Hawaii is too far away and strange."

I was hurt by the remark. I never thought where I grew up was strange, unusual or exotic. I thought it was normal to grow up in Hawaii since I didn't know any different. A clear culture clash that probably explains, sadly, why Obama has never mentioned his Hawaiian roots or what he absorbed growing up in Hawaii. Oh, what I keep learning.

Here's our schedule: (We are still in Room 615.)

Wednesday, August 20, 2008 - 1 pm - Debate - SPAR, etc. Shile will present his "sales pitch" for his new book.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008 - 1 pm - Club - Leadership. This is a huge topic which is a natural extension of our two sessions on Persuasion.

What happened on August 13 - Club - Persuasion II - A good question! Two and a half hours raced by as the group were engaged in a lively exchange about the strategies that were used and should have been used in the planning of the upcoming student program connected with Student Orientation.

The combattants included Kazi Faltah, Olushile Aktintade, Lorinda Moore, James Millner, Carlisle Yearwood, David Nussbaum, Richard Green and
Hal Wicke.

Frankly, I have no notes, other than "Code of Conduct." Hardly representative of the discussion. I'll try to reconstruct the session through a series of bulleted fragments.
Program order
Who should speak and when?
The best way(s) to address student interests
An audience analysis
Who should discuss the Code of Conduct?
Why should students come to this meeting?
Any the hidden agendas?
Relation of Student Orientation program to a "Meet and Greet"
Two meetings or one - will the students come back for a 2nd time?
Timing of event - before Jewish holidays
Publicity - getting the word out
How is this program idea going to persuade freshman students to become involved in Touro?
Will it be boring? Too long? Time limits.
Does the program need rehearsal?
Who will speak for the various majors?
What are the roles for Shile, Lorinda and James?
Is this program really new? The freshman students won't know the difference!
What will be covered in the "Student Life at Touro" presentation?
How does the Communication Club get mentioned?

And on and on. It was a health strategy session, but nothing, unfortunately, was agreed upon. It was almost like a brainstorming session. My only comment is that as a group we need to structure our discussions in a much more focused manner. That is probably the fault of the moderator (Hal) who has conducted them with a free-flowing laissez-faire openness. Exciting, but not terribly useful as a series of concrete outcomes. The group needs to discuss the structure of our exchanges - accidental, loose or with a strict agenda.

Still it was exciting. I wonder whether a stranger could make any sense out of it.

Next time, bring your friends and we'll talk about how we talk about how we talk. Really?


Yup.


Hal Wicke

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Touro Communication Club Notes #37
tourocommunicationclub.blogspot.com
In China, the number “8” is a lucky number. It is not surprising that they chose 8.08.08 as the opening day for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. But we could not have predicted that the Russians would choose today to invade Georgia, a former satellite of the U.S.S.R and now an independent country since 1989. One might have thought the invasion date was strategically chosen so the media focus on the Olympics would minimize the importance of the invasion. That the invasion was begun on Friday, a typical down day in the world news cycle, seems quite conscious.
That Friday was also chosen by ex-Senator John Edwards to reveal his illicit affair during his Presidential certain was very conscious. Despite Edwards’s attempt to hide the event, the media is blasting away with this tragic ethical incident. It seems the cable and broadcast media are becoming more like People Magazine and the National Inquirer. Oddly, the National Inquirer, noted for inventing sleaze about everyone, may have gained a nanosecond of respectability in pushing this Edwards story.
With another war in the headlines, with another indiscretion by public figure and with our personal difficulties frequently dominating our lives daily, we can face a constant challenge to keep a positive attitude on the present and future. I am always concerned about how we view the events in our lives. Our perceptions can affect how we think and behave. Somehow, long ago, I acquired the habit of viewing life as a glass half-full of water. But I can certainly see how people can acquire a negative view of life.- as a glass half-empty.
It’s hard for someone to view life positively if most of our lives having only known negative experiences. Yet, as with Pandora’s box, there is always a thin sliver of hope remains at bottom after all the sins of the world have escaped. This perception of the world as very imperfect, yet worth working on, is, I think, a chosen view.....I’ll stop here, lest I climb on another of my soapboxes.
I do know that the Communication Club is a totally positive and productive experience – almost a balm against the negativity in the world.
Here’s the upcoming schedule:
Wednesday, August 13, 2008 – 1 pm– Club – Persuasion II continues in Room 615. Who knows where it will lead? But, without question, it will be fascinating. A highlight on the agenda: Olushile Atkintade, our novelist, will present his “sales pitch” he is going to present to his church about the book.
Wednesday, August 29, 2008 – 1 pm - Debate –More SPAR Instant debates – and who knows what else we’ll talk about. It’s pretty safe that we will have another exciting exchange. Maybe we’ll even decide on a debate topic! Follow the room signs.
What happened on Wednesday, August 6, 20081 pm Debate – SPAR
Today’s session was split between an inevitable discussion about the marketing of the Communication Club and an exciting SPAR debate. Lorinda Moore, James Millner and Kazi Faltah engaged in a spirited exchange with Richard Green, David Nussbaum and Hal Wicke. Carlisle Yearwood joined us again and added immeasurably to the discussion. He is our literary muse “in residence.”
For nearly an hour, the group exchanged ideas on how to build the Communication Club. Lorinda spoke about working with James and Shile and Dean Taylor to develop an expanded Student Orientation. They feel that Orientation should not be a one-time event, but rather a permanent on-going series of events which promote student participation at Touro. It was clear that members of the Communication Club are taking a leadership role in these planning sessions and will have a platform for promoting the activities of the Club.
Questions were raised as to thinking about Club recruitment as a business thinks about marketing. Our “product” is “Communication” and all the skills that we learn and the enormous benefits we will have when we leave Touro. We should do a specific “features and benefits” list. that we all use the same language when we talk to students.
During the open-ended discussion, words such as “Byzantine,” W,.B. Yeats’ poem “Byzantium,” Franz Kafka and his novel “Metamorphosis” and other literary references floated into our conversation Carlisle, Richard and David made excellent contributions. It is always exciting when so many literary and cultural references can be brought to the surface and discussed in the20normal course of our communication. It is almost that “Communication” is a touchstone, a Rosetta stone, to understanding civilization.
The cliché, “A bird in hand is worth more than 2 in the bush,” was debated by Lorinda (Affirmative) and James (Negative). Lorinda won the debate 4 votes to none. Then the “judges” offered their comments, mostly positive, about the debaters’ performances. The debate session ended with both Lorinda and James critiquing their own performances.
The debaters are getting used to the very restrictive time limit, forcing each debater to think quickly on their feet. It is extremely difficult, but once learned, the skill.becomes permanently imbedded in our DNA. David made an excellent analogy to studying for the SAT without a time limit and then facing the pressure of the exam with a time limit. Terrible nerves.
As we departed, Lorinda recited a heartfelt poem she had written, to the applause of the group. That led to the idea of a student “poetry slam,” one of so many Communication related program ideas we could sponsor.
Join us as we try to promote more light than heat! See you next time. Bring a friend!
Hal Wicke

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Touro Communication Club Notes #36
tourocommunicationclub.blogspot.com
BREAKING NEWS!
Communication Club member Olushile Akintade has published his first novel, “Wings of the Wind.” He has been working on it since he left Nigeria and the novel was published just this week. He shared copies of the work with the members of the club this week. The novel, the first of a trilogy, is set in 70AD during the Meroitic Kingdom of Nubia (now Sudan, located south of Egypt in Africa) and tells the story of Samuel who is “torn from his family, sold into slavery and begins a tumultuous journey to find strength enough to return home.” Shile graduated summa cum laude from Touro in June and collected several awards at the ceremony. We congratulate Shile on his literary efforts which contrasts his expertise in computers. He sets a continuing and shining example for all of us at Touro and in the Communication Club.
The news of the week had a number of surprises. On the scientific side, the Red planet of Mars is confirmed to have water, creating speculation that life could have existed there. On the ethical side, Exxon-Mobil, the world’s largest oil company, posted $11.6 billion in profits for just the second quarter. Amazingly, their stock price went down on the market because speculators thought Exxon would post higher profits. (Now, ain’t that sad?) Another Republican senator, Ted Stevens from Alaska, the longest serving Republican, was indicted on several corruption charges. Is it corruption as usual?
And Senators McCain and Obama continued to trade accusations, often interpreting each other’s statements in the worst possible light. Their TV commercials get much more free air time than what they pay for because they are replayed incessantly on the broadcast and cable news organizations.
A category of voters, called “low information voters,” has been getting more attention recently. These are the potential voters who don’t pay much attention to the news and the issues. They vote their emotions. The term is virtually a euphemism for ignorance. Yet, in a democracy, everyone – according to legend – has a right to vote.
For any political campaign, the challenge is to get these “low information voters” to vote for your candidate with little or knowledge. In 2004, “wedge issues,” like abortion, same-sex marriage and stem cell research, were successful in distracting these voters from voting for candidates who espoused basic political realities, like the economy. T his successful strategy affected these voters by using “bumper sticker” statements reducing complex issues to several words or “sound bites.”
Great persuasion device! Advertisers use it all the time! Didn’t Josef Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda chief, invent the tactic? I think it was called, “The Big Lie.” The strategy: Repeat a falsehood or twisted statement often enough and people will believe it.
In our Communication Club, we are working to become more aware of how certain persuasion strategies affect the outcome a decision.
Here’s the upcoming schedule:
Wednesday, August 6, 2008 1 pm Debate –SPAR Instant debates continue – and maybe we’ll choose a new topic if we don’t get distracted. Follow the room signs
Wednesday, July 30, 2008 1 pm– Club – Persuasion II continues. Who knows where it will lead? But, without question, it will be fascinating.
What happened on
Wednesday, July 30, 2008 – 1 pm – Club – Persuasion I
From the moment we asked for definitions of “persuasion,” we began to see nuances between the approaches. Using a personal experience, Kazi Faltah described his attempt to persuade his fellow Bangladeshis about how wonderful his experience at Touro has been. When confronted with a negative comment, Kazi used an analogy of opening a bag of rice. Inevitably, in every bag of rice, there are a few black grains. He counseled his friends that you don’t throw out the entire bag of rice for a few black grains. What you do, Kazi suggested, is to just throw out the black grains and cook all the good rice. The same is true for any experience, he felt; in every good experience, there is some not-so-good parts, but you don’t throw everything out because of a few negative experiences.
Hal Wicke pointed out that what Kazi was doing was “overcoming objections,” a necessary part of the persuasion process. Every one has objections to another point of view. Just as in debate, you have to prepare for the other side of an argument.
Newcomer Winsom Wong separated the definitions of persuasion and sales. He felt that “sales” was for products and services while “persuasion” was for abstract ideas. The group batted that idea around for several minutes. Richard Green reminded the group that Hal had said that “everything is sales.” He felt the statement was too blatant and not representative of what actually goes on. David Nussbaum extended the discussion of definitions by suggesting perhaps sales is part of persuasion and its use depends on the situation.
Lorinda Moore spoke of her experience as an artist’s representative and event producer where she had to use her persuasive skills to get both the artist and event sponsor to find common ground. And, mind you, all of her efforts currently are for free, but she hopes to get paid for them in the future.
Somewhere during the session, Jetante Morris joined the group with her four grandchildren. Jetante was one of the finalists in the 5th Speech Contest this past spring. Olushile Atkintade, a Club regular, and English Professor Carlisle Yearwood joined the group as well. Because there were several new faces, we went around introducing ourselves.
The discussion moved toward persuasion in the classroom. Carlisle commented that he had written a haiku and an English sonnet in reaction to Jesse Jackson’s less than elegant statement about Senator Obama’s attitude toward minorities. He explained that the structures of haiku and sonnet forms demand highly reductive use of language to capture a thought.
Talk moved toward how students view their professors. Shile argued that all students “audition” their professors. On the first day and until the drop/add day, students get a sense of how difficult the course and professor will be and, if they feel they can’t get a good grade (an “A” or at least a0B”), they drop the course or change sections. Other students in the group agreed in general to Shile’s concept.
Someone commented that the students were then, in fact, consumers. If they didn’t like the product, they would “return.” Education, for students, is a commodity – a thing, an product – to be bought and sold on the open market.
The Greek myth of Pygmalion was mentioned and explained in connection with the palpable power that instructors hold over their classes. More later.
Unfortunately, the session came to an end, just as this controversial point of view was beginning to gain traction. We would continue the discussion in two weeks.
Hal remembered to ask the group at least one of what we’ll now call Lorinda’s questions. How did i feel about the session? Everyone was extremely excited about the exchange and was looking forward to the next time. Exploration of the other questions was swallowed up in the hubbub of the departure.
As people were leaving, Shile shyly brought out his newly published novel which consumed everyone’s attention.
  • These are “Lorinda’s Questions”:
1. How did I feel about the discussion?
2. What part of the discussion influenced me the most?
3. Was there something that did not change the discussi on?
4. What will I definitely do after this discussion?

Join us as we try to promote more light than heat! See you next time. Bring a friend!

Hal Wicke
Touro Communication Club Notes #35
tourocommunicationclub.blogspot.com
NEWS ABOUT TOURO COMMUNICATORS:
The winner of the 4th Speech Contest, Simone Weber, was valedictorian of her class at Touro Berlin.
The winner of the 5th Speech Contest, Lara Koerfer, is now in Japan on an internship with Volkswagen.
If you have any information about your own latest accomplishments, please email it to Hal Wicke and he will include it on the blog.
The announcements are really exciting news!. They indicate that our students who have been part of the Touro Communication Club are their Communication skills in a wide variety of situations. As those who come to our sessions regularly, there are so many situations, personal and professional, that Communication skills are used 24/7.
The Presidential campaign gets closer to the nominating conventions. With less that 100 days to the elections, both Senators McCain and Obama are ramping up their activities. McCain has increased his attack advertising on Obama’s lack of experience while Obama was greeted like a rock star in his whirlwind tour of the Middle East and Europe. McCain’s camp complained that Obama really didn’t say anything consequential in his Berlin speech before only 200,000 people. Obama is aware that, as a Presidential candidate, he cannot saying substantive about polic y before he is elected.
We are now entering the dog days of summer, alternating between sweltering heat and humidity and flash thunderstorms. These are days to relax and go to the beach or enjoy an outdoor concert. Our brains go to seed only to be braced by the jolt of post-Labor Day school. Enjoy while you can!
Here’s the upcoming schedule:
Wednesday, July 30, 2008 – 1 pm– Club – “Persuasion” an open-ended discussion about a volatile Communication activity. Hal makes the statement that “Everyone is always selling something.” Let the arguments begin. Follow the room signs.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008 – 1 pm Debate –SPAR Instant debates continue – and maybe we’ll choose a new topic if we don’t get distracted. Follow the room signs.
What happened on Wednesday, July 23, 2008 – 1 pm – Debate
We had such a rip-roaring session with the SPAR debate format that we forgot to talk about our next debate topic. James Millner, Kazi Faltah and Lorinda Moore took turns debating. Richard Green, David Nussbaum and Hal Wicke were joined by Carlisle Yearwood (English) and Steven Gradman (Political Science) in adjudicating the debates and offering their comments.
The first topic was “Honesty is the best policy” with Kazi taking the affirmative position and using Biblical references as his main support while James took the negative and offered alternative evidence to Kazi’s stance. The judges voted that the Negative case won the debate. All manner of comment followed the decision.
The second topic was “The grass is greener on the other side.” Lorinda took the Affirmative position while James took the Negative. Lorinda said she was “blindsided” by the unexpected argument that James presented by taking the cliche literally with all the weeds that are among the grass. His logic was humorous as well unexpectedly switching from the metaphorical intention of the cliché.=2 0
These SPAR debates are wonderful training tools for our debaters. They require no extensive preparation, but demand close listening and the development of thought structures that prepare for an argument as well as surprise responses.
At the last minute, Hal remembered Lorinda’s earlier suggestion of questions to put perspective on the session. Everyone thought the session was exciting, fun and very useful in the future. Some thought we needed to work on how to use the short preparation time more effectively. Most people are not used to thinking in an organized fashion under pressure. We’ll work on this next time.
  • These are Lorinda’s questions;
1. How did I feel about the discussion?
2. What part of the discussion influenced me the most?
3. Was there something that did not change the discussion?
4. What will I definitely do after this discussion?
Join us as we try to promote more light than heat! See you next time. Bring a friend!
Hal Wicke