Touro Communication Club Notes #57
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This Week!
Wednesday, January 14, 2009– 2 pm – Room 223 Midtown –
Club Discussion on
“How Power Affects Communication”
What is Power?
Do I have Power?
Do others have Power?
How does Power and/or the lack of it affect our Communication?
We’ll share stories and try to come up with some conclusions about Power.
Communication comments:
I’ve learned that blurbs for this little essay come from the most unexpected sources. After the SPAR debate session was over, Amina Bibi and Egypt Allen remained still emotionally connected to the session.
Amina is from Pakistan and Egypt is from the Bronx, near Yonkers. Yet they spoke of disillusionment in their different work experiences. Amina will be graduating from Touro this semester and will move from an internship to working for the Pakistani mission to the United Nations. Egypt has had an internship at the New York City Council, connected to Speaker Christine Quinn’s office.
Both spoke of the chaos behind the scenes, people rushing around not looking like they knew what they were doing. Each spoke of the back-biting and gossiping between the workers as well as the lack of the lack of preparedness for a public event. Yet when the Pakistani Ambassador and Speaker Quinn got up to spoke, they presented a thin façade of knowing what they were doing, when moments before each seemed out of control and not prepared.
The disillusionment that both Amina and Egypt experience was the suddenly be confronted with the reality of politics – how behind the scenes was seeming different from what the public saw.
I was also struck that these two Touro students from locations 7000 miles apart could describe quite similar behavior in parallel situations. We talked about their disillusionment coming from their idealized expectations of people in public positions. Both seemed to imagine that public figures were always knowledgeable, poised, prepared and able to manage their public and private personae.
We talked about what might be the impact of their discovery of different realities in public and behind the scenes. Both were still too emotionally close to their shock to yet put it in perspective. We talked briefly about the high expectations that people around the world have about President-elect Barack Obama’s ability to reverse the fortunes of America and the world.
As they spoke, I was reminded again (see last week’s blog entry) of how Toto goes behind the curtain of the Wizard of Oz to discover the “Wizard” pulling all kinds of levers that made the public image of the Wizard so fearsome
Our upcoming schedule is:
Wednesday, January 21, 2009 – Theatre Workshop – Improvisation Technique – Room 223 - Midtown – We will continue to build on the breathing exercises and the mental focus that is required of an actor. No doubt we will do some exercises that will challenge your ability to forget who you are in order to become someone or something else. Lots of imagination! Lots of fun!
Wednesday, January 28, 2009 – Club Discussion – “What’s Happening to Communication?” James Millner suggested this topic recently in an email. He wrote, “The other day I heard a conversation about communication that raised an interesting point. It was pertaining to the techno era, with all the e-mailing, sms mail, and texting. A question arose, "What happening to communication?" Now it seems that even the telephone is not used for the purpose it was invented for anymore. I think it would be an interesting topic to discuss.
We think so, too, James! If this discussion goes the way of our other discussions, we will end up with some very unusual conversation.
What happened on January 7, 2008 with the SPAR Debate?
Richard Green and Egypt Allen faced off with the proverb “The grass is greener on the other side.” In the second round, Charles Mason debated Egypt on the topic, “Too many cooks spoil the broth.” In our third round, Frank Antwi and Drani Gabu argued, “When in Rome, do at the Romans.” Amina Bibi and Jose Dunker joined in as spectators and judges.
Immediately after each debate the spectator/judges voted on the “winners of each debate. Posting the winners is irrelevant to this learning process, but we do it to have some minimal yardstick. Then each debater was asked what they thought of their presentation and what they could do better next time. Finally, the entire group made their comments. Everyone was tired from concentrating for an hour and a half.
What did the debaters learn?
- Time goes too fast.
- Fill up the time at all costs.
- The entire experience is very intense. (“I’m not used to concentrating that hard.”)
- My mind goes round and round in circles.
- It’s hard to get all your thoughts out of your mouth fast enough.
- When you run out of material, you repeat and develop what you’ve already said.
- Be quicker on asking questions.
- Don’t let your opponent eat up your time by continuing to run their mouths.
- Use the prep period wisely to think of three points to support your point of view.
- And think of three arguments that your opponent will use against you.
Clearly, with practice, each will get sharper at thinking on their feet. Most importantly, they will get used to thinking ahead and anticipating the arguments of their opponent. This is critical thinking at its purest!
Hal Wicke
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