Good points about listening, being active listeners. Listening is a fine art, as it requires really hearing, and processing what is said. We listen to wait to give our opinion, which goes against the grain of listening at all. There is a wonderful movie called "K-PAX", starring Jeff Bridges playing a psychiatrist who doesn't listen. He doesn't listen to his patients, his wife, his children...until one patient, played by Kevin Spacey, arrives to help Mark begin to listen. One of the key scenes has Prot telling Mark, "Mark, Mark, Mark...you're not really listening are you?" The non-verbal communication that goes on in the opening scenes is so classically the passive listener. I have used these scenes often in my human communication class when we talk about verbal and non-verbal communication. By the end of the movie, the doctor is listening, and in ways he can't believe is possible. Great movie, and a great movie to use in class to bring in this very topic, if it works into your course. Back to listening, it is so important to look behind the words sometimes, and get what your students are really saying. Listening... and really hearing.