Active and attentive listening isn't always easy to do but it is critical to success. In today's world we tend to make assumptions instead of really listening. The 2 concepts from chapter 6 Mr. Smith talked about in his speech were empathic listening and evaluative response. Empathic listening requires us to take the perspective of the other person, to listen for what the person needs and wants. (Pg.179, J. Dan Rothwell). When the homeless man looked at Mr. Smith searching for affirmation that he was worth seeing/ looking at but he didn't and was more concerned with touching the screen on his apple than actually feeding him one. Later on in the speech according to Mr. Smith he said "I will ask that homeless man what his name is and how his day was, because sometimes all people want to be his human". This showed how Mr. Smith show empathy towards the homeless man in just being a Good Samaritan and looking at himself from the homeless man perspective. My second concept is the evaluative response. The evaluative response it makes a judgement about the person's conduct. (Pg. 180, J Dan Rothwell). In Mr. Smith speech he talked about how the woman at the fundraising gala said "I'm so proud of you. It must be so hard teaching those poor, unintelligent kids," with him having to bite his lip, because they apparently needed her money more than my students needed their dignity. The judgement this woman made was strong it made he look rude and arrogant and according to Mr. Smith he said he "I will tell that woman that my students can talk about transcendentalism like their last name was Thoreau, and just because you watched one episode of "The Wire" doesn't mean you know anything about my kids". There were couple new insights I discovered in listening to Mr. Smith speech is not only rude (and arrogant) but it brands you as a know it all but instead when we take our time and listen patiently, ask clarifying questions and seek to understand the speaker before making supposition.
