#269. The Face

Each of us spent years in college learning to better our conducting skills as a profound means of communication, and it is. We spent semester after semester honing our speaking skills as a mighty means of communication, and it is. We spent even longer perfecting our writing skills as a potent form of communication, and it is. However, of all the forms of communication we have as teachers, the face is undoubtedly the most powerful.  None of those others even come close! As true as it is that an elegantly meaningful conducting gesture or a few perfectly chosen words can be amazingly communicative, for sheer speed and intensity, nothing matches the face. Human beings can read and understand a facial expression in 1/5 of a second. Isn’t that utterly astounding? In 200 milliseconds, our face can ”say” a thousand words and communicate what would take our hands minutes to portray. So, is the takeaway from this that those hours in writing, speech, and conducting classes were wasted? Of course not. The message is that developing a powerfully communicative face – and using it as much as we can as we teach and conduct – when layered on top of great conducting and speaking, will foster communication that will be intense, meaningful, and contagious.

Peter Loel Boonshaft, Director of Education
KHS America