Sonds Of Silence, An Educators View

As a retiring teacher, and one who just saw Simon and Garfunkle in concert, the song The Sounds of Silence caught my ear once again. I remember sitting in the cafeteria in 1966 listening to this song on the juke box over and over, and wonder what it was they were trying to say.

I realize that it can mean different thing to different people, but in my profession, the Sounds of Silence meant the lack of serious questioning that students have today.

"Hello darkness my old friend".....

The Darkness is the void left by lack of questioning authority. The Silence is the lack of questioning itself. Kids today absorb everything they see on the TV without question, which is a disturbing trend.

"The restless streams I walked alone, now are streets of cobbled stone"....

Clearly a reference to unbridled commercial growth

"When my eyes were stared by the flash of a neon light, shook the night"

"And in the naked light I saw

Ten thousand people, maybe more.

People talking without speaking,

People hearing without listening,"

The masses of uneducated in America today

"People writing songs that voices never share

And no one dared

Disturb the sound of silence."

The decline of music in public schools today.

"Fools" said I,"You do not know

Silence like a cancer grows."

It is easy not to question anything when the prevailing