Listen

Listen up! How many times has your teacher said that? Or words like it? We have five basic senses–touch, sight, hearing, taste and smell. Touch is the first way we figure out what’s going on around us. Next is taste–babies touch first, then taste what they pick up.

We rely on our eyes to guide us, but our hearing and touch take over in the dark.

We hear many things daily, and our brains decide which ones to listen to. The words hear and listen have different meanings. We hear things, mainly background noises like traffic outside or the waves at the beach.

But when we listen, our brains process the information they’re receiving. It’s easy to drift away from important sounds–like your teacher’s voice. If you’ve been distracted during a math lesson and tried to tune back in, you’ll know it’s complicated.

And you’re cool, right? You don’t want to raise your hand and ask the teacher to backtrack. Besides, you can catch up at home by using your eyes to read your textbook.

Brain scientists believe we each have a learning strength. Some of us learn best through seeing, others by listening, and still others through touch. All of us use a combination of the three.

Remember, though, keep those ears open! Teachers say mostly important stuff, which means listening, not just hearing.

Still not convinced? Think how strange it would sound if your teacher said, ‘Hear up!’ instead of ‘Listen up!’