Research Supporting Quiet As A Core Value In Modern Libraries

Robert Kernodle Page 1 of 8

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Michael W. Shelton and Karen Shelton (1992). Silence
Please: Silence As A Component Of Interpersonal
Communication. Conference paper presented at the Joint Meeting of the
Southern States Communication Association and the Central States
Communication Association, Lexington Kentucky, April 14-18, 1993.

Silence itself is a form of interpersonal communication where we say
something by saying nothing. Two-way conversation, in fact, requires
it.
Many original Americans (i.e., most American Indian tribes) honored
quiet and discouraged profuse or promiscuous use of words. For these
original Americans, the space between words was the realm where
people develop character, self-control, courage, patience, and dignity.
Americans who later came to dominate the culture dispensed with the
reverence for quiet, placing great emphasis on verbal communication,
and often treating silent members of a group as the least influential
members.

2|
Megan Boler (2001). The Challenge Of Interpreting
Silence In Public Spaces. THE PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION
SOCIETY YEARBOOK 2001:166-169.
Emphasizing speaking is a method of enforcing the "silencing of
silence", which perpetuates the false idea that talking automatically
represents democratic participation.
Favoring speech ignores reflective practice.
Systematic education in the art of listening does not exist in
elementary schools, in secondary schools, in higher learning, or in the
public sphere.
Research Supporting Quiet As A Core Value In Modern Libraries
Robert Kernodle Page 2 of 8

Silence has deeply personal and spiritual aspects, regarded as evils in
education and politics.
Educators need to be extremely cautious about emphasizing speech
and de-emphasizing quiet.
By cultivating the practice of quiet mindfulness, teachers can greatly
enhance the quality of interaction and the quality of thought that takes
place in education.
In political and educational contexts, silence is automatically feared,
"pathologized", and assigned no currency, yet, ironically, we must
speak of this problem in order to avoid it.


3|
Huey-li Li (2001). Silences And Silencing Silences. THE
PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION SOCIETY
YEARBOOK 2001:157-165.

Educational discussions about silence seem to be erroneous and one-
dimensional, treating the absence of talk as the consequence of a
disciplinary act only.

In modern discussions about multi-cultural education, educators
should re-think the simple dichotomy of silence versus speech, and
they should challenge the primacy of speech.

Technological advancements in modern industrial society are especially
powerful lures that cause people of developed nations to avoid silence
and to justify intolerance of silence.

Mass media and computer-mediated communication systems
constantly erode and destroy silent spaces at the public level, thus
making it nearly impossible for individuals to learn how to appreciate
silence, either by themselves or in the presence of others.

Americans are a nation of "space pluggers" and "gap fillers", both in
education and in life, as we obsessively fill what we think are empty
spaces and empty sound gaps with the perpetual flux of objects and
decibels.

Research Supporting Quiet As A Core Value In Modern Libraries
Robert Kernodle Page 3 of 8

The idea of "cooperative learning" has become the dominant idea in
mainstream teacher education.

When teachers, in classroom settings, use the idea
of "participation" as a measure of student participation, they inevitably
condition students in the belief that silent, active listening is not a
legitimate form of "participating."

Speech can be systematically distorted, consciously or unconsciously,
to give some groups or individuals more importance than other groups
or individuals.

"... the dichotomization of silence and speech misleads us to devalue
silence and to privilege speech.... I call for recognition of the need to
dismantle this false dichotomy and to develop a pedagogical
understanding of silences." (p. 162)


4|
Angelo Caranfa (2004). Silence As The Foundation Of
Learning. EDUCATIONAL THEORY 54 (2):211-230.

The many arguments in educational literature are flawed, because
they exclude silence from the studies of teaching on which they are
based.

Both self-knowledge and discourse originate in silence.

A world of wonder, contemplation, and listening is revealed through
a "language without words."

We are at risk of becoming mere appendages of noises that our
machines make, as well as mere appendages of our own verbal noises
that we grow to depend on superficially, no longer defining ourselves
through our decisions, our actions, and our judgments.

Defined by our noises, we become incapable of listening and incapable
of speaking with any depth.

True learning does not take place when it is connected primarily with
noise, profit, and utility.

Research Supporting Quiet As A Core Value In Modern Libraries
Robert Kernodle Page 4 of 8

Education based on silence teaches students to think logically, critically,
and with sensitivity for the whole of things.


5|
Michalinos Zembylas & Pavlos Michaelides (2004). The
Sound Of Silence In Pedagogy. EDUCATIONAL THEORY 54
(2):193-210.

Ignoring the value of silence in education comes at a cost, to the
individual and to society.

Respect for silence in education encourages humility, a sense of
wonder, respect for the self, and respect for others.

"The current educational system in the West is rooted in 'fear of
silence,' which is one reason the understanding of silence in negative
terms prevails." (p. 208)


6|
Angelo Caranfa (2006). Voices Of Silence In Pedagogy:
Art, Writing And Self-Encounter. JOURNAL OF
PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION 40 (1):85-103.

The failure of liberal arts education is in its exclusion of feelings and in
its exclusion of silence from the processes of reflection and thinking.

Teaching is as much about listening as it is about speaking.

Silence encloses all things, including spoken language.

Feeling, intuition, imagination, and contemplative silence are
necessities in learning or in knowing.

Continental philosopher, Maurice Merlot-Ponty argued that language
does not give true, genuine knowledge of the visible world, but rather
robs the world of its invisible essence. Consequently, any knowledge
or language that ignores or de-emphasizes silence is inadequate.

Research Supporting Quiet As A Core Value In Modern Libraries
Robert Kernodle Page 5 of 8

When the flatness of mechanistic thought is allowed to rule, we cannot
experience the depth of unfathomable existence.

An "aesthetic of silence" teaches us to listen in ways that integrate the
intellectual, moral, and spiritual dimensions of our lives. The greatest
shortcoming of educators is their failure to teach that there is more to
knowledge than what we can tell.

An "aesthetic of silence" teaches us to tune into others.

Prioritizing the spoken word suppresses the transformative, creative
power of personal knowledge gained in contemplative silence.


7|
Ros Ollin (2008). Silent Pedagogy And Rethinking
Classroom Practice: Structuring Teaching Through Silence
Rather Than Talk. CAMBRIDGE JOURNAL OF EDUCATION 38
(2):265-280.

A negative perception of silence causes a cultural bias favoring talk,
which establishes underlying preconceptions about what constitutes
participation and interaction.

Formal learning in Western civilizations emphasizes the value of talk,
and this value remains relatively unchallenged.

Creative, productive interactions can occur where there is no talking.

Educators should make a distinction between activities that genuinely
promote learning and activities (used unquestioningly) that promote
other agendas.

"Social" learning theory has been confused with "sociable" learning
theory.






Research Supporting Quiet As A Core Value In Modern Libraries
Robert Kernodle Page 6 of 8

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Cathleen Haskins (2010). Integrating Silence Practices
Into The Classroom: The Value of Quiet. ENCOUNTER:
EDUCATION FOR MEANING AND SOCIAL JUSTICE 23 (3):1-6.

The current disregard for silence in modern educational philosophy
begins to take hold early in a child's life, where the once slow, easy
freedoms of childhood barely exist today.

In modern civilization, we live in a storm of noise that robs children of
their abilities to know the beauty of silence.

Most children in today's developed world know silence only as
discipline or as punishment from controlling adults, and these children
are further denied positive, quiet experiences by adults who have lost
their own ways in a noisy world.
Today's adolescents grow up with technological innovations that
disable their desires to know fulfilling quiet and creative solitude.

Nonstop, incessant noise has become the norm that disconnects
people of all ages from their inner resources.

Holistic education reform requires that teachers create learning
environments that offer exercises in stillness and silence, where
silence is NOT treated as the negative force of adult authority, but as
the positive space of inner peace, creativity, and renewal.


9|
Kathryn Byrnes (2011). Review of RETHINKING
CLASSROOM PARTICIPATION: LISTENING TO SILENT
VOICES By Katherine Schultz.. EDUCATION REVIEW, 14.

Relying on verbal participation to assess learning often rewards
compliance (i.e. talking that the teacher expects) instead of
thoughtfulness and comprehension.

Speech becomes more powerful and insightful through a norm of
silence.

American schools traditionally do not value silence.
Research Supporting Quiet As A Core Value In Modern Libraries
Robert Kernodle Page 7 of 8


Talk does not necessarily equal learning.

Schools and communities need to return to a wise understanding of
silence, inspired by the saying, "You have two ears and one mouth for
a reason. You should listen twice as much as you speak." (p. 4)


10|
Anonymous (2013), Quiet Please, LIBRARY JOURNAL,
http://lj.libraryjournal.com/blogs/annoyedlibrarian/2013/02/06/q
uiet-please/

One finding of a 2013 Pew study on libraries, which many librarians would
prefer to keep dark, revealed that 76% of respondents thought quiet study
spaces for adults and children was important for a public library.

"Based on those percentages, being a quiet space is among the core
attributes the public believes libraries should have."

"space and quiet are even further limited when libraries are turned
into circuses."

"Why create a quiet haven for those who dont have one when you can have
poledanders and banjo players and loud cell phone calls? I guess a lot of
librarians get bored with all the quiet. Not me. Thats one of the best things
about being a librarian, walking into a building that isnt rife with all the
noise unavoidable on the street and in most public places. The noise of
everyday life is getting louder, and without quiet libraries will be almost
inescapable. But some librarians are too busy rocking to notice, or
maybe they just dont like silence because silence breeds
contemplation and they dont want to contemplate their lives."


CONCLUSION

This research documents three points:

(1) A mature outlook towards the value of silence in speech, in fact,
does exist. Modern library professionals, however, ignore the
existence of such a mature outlook. Such ignorance suggests that
Research Supporting Quiet As A Core Value In Modern Libraries
Robert Kernodle Page 8 of 8

a NOT mature value system is shaping modern libraries. This NOT
mature outlook, furthermore, is gaining great support from leaders
who place more value on childish customer satisfaction than on
mature customer education. Under the influence of this NOT mature
outlook, the people in charge of operating modern libraries measure
success according to a lowest-common-denominator satisfaction
scale, where excellent educational standards deteriorate.
(2) The relatively recent problem of excessive noise in modern libraries
can be attributed to four main causes:
Modern, Western civilization has always treated speech
primarily in positive terms of active learning, while treating
silence primarily in negative terms of authoritative control and
punishment.
Runaway developments in technology (e.g., computers and
mobile communication devices) have enacted and enforced
Western cultural values that privilege speech.
Parallel developments in education have mirrored popular
culture's information-exchange mania, thus solidifying Western
values that favor speech and fear silence.
Seller/consumer relationships have surpassed student/teacher
relationships in importance, as institutions struggle to survive in
an economy that supports primarily goods and services "aimed
to please".

(3) Even in 2014, the majority of people who actually use or would use
a library (i.e., patrons) consider quiet as the primary core value of
any library. On the other hand, the majority of people who manage
libraries (i.e., librarians) seem desperate to escape a stereotype
fostered by the Western fear of silence, escalated to exponential
proportions by new technology.