Communications: An Integral Part of Education

Communication: An Integral Part of Education

Communication is a skill that everyone needs to acquire and learn how to utilize effectively. In any given profession, communication is required regardless of whether or not the field is a creative, professional, or strictly business. Especially in the field of elementary education do the teachers and staff need to possess exemplary communication skills. This is not only with the students but as well as with fellow faculty members and the parents’ involved in the community and school. All areas of communication are vital to be an effectual educator but none as important as understanding the culture of the teaching environment, using rhetoric in class lectures and lessons, and becoming a valued and skilled public speaker. With the three above qualities mastered, only then can an educator truly be seen as an effective communicator.

To honestly and successfully understand culture, the educator must know that culture is “a system of ideas, values, beliefs, structures, and practices that is communicated by one generation to the next and that sustains a particular way of life” (Wood, 2002, p.95). In appreciating and analyzing this, a teacher must then now use this basic understanding of culture and formulate their lesson plans and agendas to encompass the variant cultures in any given school setting. Not only America, but Texas too has become a melting pot of varying cultures from all expanses of the world. This makes educating at this time very fascinating and exciting but potentially frustrating. Language and cultural barriers often create obstacles in the classroom which makes teaching in a normal and systematical approach ineffective. Cultural barriers can most easily be tackled by teaching other children about the importance of culture and in teaching them “tolerance, in which a person accepts differences, although he or she may not approve of or even understand them” (Wood, 2002, 117). Not only in culture but in just plain communication skills, students learn very quickly important ways of communicating effectively and ineffectively. Once thrust into school, children begin for the first time to communicate and express themselves without their parents’ around. In a recent study “it was reported that all of the communication skills perceived as important to children ranked as follows ...

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...portant skill to hone, yet it must be followed through properly. If it is seen as some domineering perspective, then it can be misleading. Rather, as a clear and successful educator, communication must be a vital and integral part of teaching. In becoming a lucrative educator, understanding culture, using rhetoric to be advantageous rather than harmful, and polishing public speaking skills will create a certain amount of validity in the chosen field of education. Therefore, to be an elementary education major a rudimentary knowledge of communication and its’ importance will make the job easier and more fun for both the student and the teacher.

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