Do Teachers Say You "Talk Too Much" in Class? Look Who's Talking!

This "talks too much" notion has got me thinking about how teachers deal with talk. So, all you students out there, do you think you "talk too much"? Yes? No? What are teachers talking about? Maybe the teacher is talking too much when she says you talk too much.

So here's a little talk about talk.

First of all, nobody talks more than teachers. We become teachers because we like to talk . . . AND we can make kids listen. How many times have you wondered when the teacher would EVER . . . STOP. . . TALKING!!!!!!!!

So when a teacher tells you you talk too much just say to yourself, "Look who's talking!"

Then, there's you. You have a highly energized, very effective, wonderfully fun little mind and it's very, very, very close to your mouth. Your mind and mouth made friends a long time ago. So they're constantly talking. Of course, when your mind talks, it's very quiet. But boy does it talk a lot. So whenever the teacher says you talk too much, just say, "On the contrary, my mouth says a lot less than my mind because my mind is quite a blabbermouth."

Your mind is constantly discovering ideas and figuring out how things work and how things can work even better. When you suddenly come across a cool idea or just a cool way of expressing an idea it's as if you'd suddenly found a gold coin under a flower. "LOOK HERE!" you say. "Look at what I've found!" That's how you are with ideas.

Our mouths help our minds point to things because the mind alone can't say much of anything except to you alone so it needs the mouth. By comparison, the mouth can blah, blah, blah all day long, but if it's not hooked up to the mind, then the poor mouth is . . . well . . . mindless. There's an old expression that goes like this: "His mind is on vacation and his mouth is working overtime." Mind and mouth have to go out into the world together or they are clueless.

Now, you like discovering ideas and what's the use of discovering things if you can't share them like gifts with friends?

Some teachers will understand that and they become teachers because of the energy and joy of minds like yours. I hope I'm one of those teachers. I've had kids in my class who talk more than the usual kid, but a lot of what they have to say is interesting and wonderful, so . . . I let them talk. Usually. Yeah, sometimes in a friendly, laughing way I have to say, "Barbara, will you please give it a REST!"

But . . . some teachers just gotta have quiet. It's as if they have a terrible headache all the time and the noise of children drives them over the edge. "Arrrrrrggggghhhhh!!!" they yell.

And some teachers just feel embarrassed by the joy and energy of a mind like yours. It makes them look sour by comparison. "What makes ____________ so happy today?" they ask.

So your job is to use that remarkable mind of yours to figure out what kind of teacher you have at any given moment. Do you have a teacher who wants to hear what you have to say, or are you in a class where the teacher wants silence? Does your teacher DESERVE to hear your voice. Then maybe you have to make some decisions about how your mind and mouth will work in a given class.

But trust me: Most teachers will want to hear what you have to say about things. I'm telling you, that's why we become teachers -- so we can have remarkable kids like you in our lives.