The Lost Art of Conversation

Last Friday was one of my favorite least-favorite-days-of-the-year, or maybe least favorite favorite-days-of-the-year. I love it because it celebrates my students. I dread it because it's graduation and I have never liked graduations (too long and dull for something that's meant to celebrate students).

One thing that has made graduations interesting throughout the years are the conversations I hear because people talk as if they weren't in a crowd of 5,000+.

For the 10 hours I spent at graduation last Friday...it was simply amazing the number of times I heard the F-word...by people over 50.

As I read Sense & Sensibility and Pride & Prejudice I was reminded of the lost art of conversation.

- people who sometimes swore, didn't used to swear in public because of the art of conversation (obviously some did but society as a whole didn't)

- people, at least people you wanted to be around, carried the conversation...if it got too sensitive toward some one's feelings or seemed to be wounding someone they would redirect the conversation toward a different topic

- gentlemen were expected to lead a conversation...no more difficult dates, ladies

- conversations were meant to incorporate those around and didn't isolate someone out of the conversation

- and there were many other objectives and guidelines involved in public and private conversation

It's an art that we have lost and while society has never perfected conversation, gossip has always prevailed after all, we seem to be reaching all time lows in topic, respect and civility, and even communication itself.

What have you noticed about both conversation around you and in your own conversations?