The Art of Brevity

I teach Special Education. My students are in elementary school, ranging from 2^nd through 5^th grade. They are kids with average intelligence – though I do have two who are also gifted (we call kids like this “twice exceptional”). Despite intellectual ability, all of them struggle in reading, math, or both.  They are amazing, fascinating, puzzling young people.

If you know me, you know how I struggle with being succinct. I love to go on, and on (and on). I come by it honest – my dad was a great lecturer when I was a teen. I remember several incidents when I arrived home past curfew and endured an oration that carried on into the wee hours of the morning.

My students have taught me the beauty of brevity. It’s only taken me eight years to learn. (In the art of concision, I’m apparently learning disabled.) Research shows that children only hear about 25% of what we say. Still, we grown-ups drone on and on. Why don’t we instead try saying 75% less? 

This year,  I’ve been giving it a go, and I have tons of anecdotal evidence that it’s working. The less I say, the more they learn (and the faster they learn it). It helps their behavior, too. The fewer words that come out of my mouth, the less antsy they get, the less impulsive they act, and the more focused they become on the job in front of them.

Now that I say about 75% less, they seem to be hearing 100% more. We have a nice, pithy term for that: it’s called a win-win.