Listening Is An Act Of Love

“Listening is an act of love.”

So says Dave Isay, the founder of StoryCorps.

It’s my favorite quote.

StoryCorps is a project that provides space for people to listen to each other.

The project travels around the country in an Airstream Travel Trailer with recording equipment inside of it.

People can sit face to face (ear to ear, really) and ask each other questions and listen to each other’s  answers.

They can share each other’s stories.

The recordings are moving, sometimes so much so that I have to pull my car over to the side of the road and weep.

If you ever see me in my car pulled over to the side of the road with my head down on the steering wheel, please check on me. Probably, though, I’m just listening to the StoryCorps segment on NPR.

I think about Isay’s precept every day at school.

How can I be a good listener to my students?

It’s tough, sometimes.

I have a student who barely talks at all.

She never raises her hand during classroom discussions.

She never speaks unless spoken to (and doesn’t speak more than a sentence or above a whisper, even then).

She always finds her way to the end of our line, whether we’re going to related arts, lunch, recess, or the bus.

She is a quiet kid.

Silent, really.

Since I haven’t been able to listen much to her yet (I believe my teacher magic will get through to her soon), I listened to her teacher from last year to learn a little bit more about her.

“I did a project where I asked my students, ‘If you had a million dollars, what would you do with it?’ said her teacher.

“She wrote, ‘I would help my dad come to me from Mexico.’”

There it is.

Now I know why she’s a person of deep and long silences.

She loves someone and there is a wall, figuratively and literally, between them.

Though she is the quiet kid, and though she is carrying this heavy load in her heart, I wish you could spend the day with her as I do.

Her earthy brown eyes are full of questions and curiosity, the kind of questions and  curiousness that push the world forward and make it a better place for everyone and everything.

She works so hard to be the best person she can be and do the best work she can do.

Her words are few, but she has listening ears and a listening heart.

Her listening is an act of love.

And I love her.