Why is Communication Important? by Elyana

Elyana's entry into Varsity Tutor's February 2023 scholarship contest

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Why is Communication Important? by Elyana - February 2023 Scholarship Essay

Soft skills are commonly seen as essential to a workplace environment. These skills include time-management, problem-solving, communication, and leadership, along with many other people-related abilities. While soft skills are most often associated with the workplace, they are also essential to education. These abilities are what makes a classroom encouraging and welcoming. They are the difference between helping a student grow and making them feel stifled. This said, one of the most important soft skills in education is communication. Communication creates well-structured leadership, allows students to feel seen and heard, and teaches students important life lessons.
The soft skill of communication is incredibly important to well-structured leadership in a school. A lack of proper, efficient communication causes stress, frustration, and a sense of instability to students. In my senior year of high school, I had a principal who was a visionary. He created huge plans that would benefit our school and set them in motion. However, he didn’t have a very good grasp on little details, which is fine. Little details come easily to some and harder to others. Unfortunately, this principal didn’t seem to realize that he wasn’t good at managing little details and failed to communicate this to the teachers or the office staff. Throughout the year, big changes were made to the school, but they were all missing small, important factors. If a huge fundraiser was being organized, no one knew when it was supposed to start. If there was a teacher meeting, none of the teachers knew until an hour before. As one would imagine, this caused a serious amount of frustration among everyone, students and teachers alike. The teachers felt disorganized, and the students felt unstable. The next year, the principal saw his shortcoming and asked someone to step up and help him. Now everything is running smoother, thanks to this small but critical moment of communication.
Communication allows students to feel seen and heard. One of the main problems I saw while I was in high school was students feeling as though their opinion didn’t matter. This caused them to rapidly swing into rebellion, believing that their rights weren’t recognized and the teachers didn’t care about them. If the students simply communicated their problems to their teachers, the problems could be solved quickly. The teachers made it clear that they were available to talk. The students simply refused, believing that communication wouldn’t change anything. However, whenever I went to talk to a teacher about any problem I was facing, I was listened to and my problem was quickly made right. It was incredibly frustrating when other students didn’t do the same. It only caused needless frustration and strife.
Finally, communication teaches important life lessons. I remember one time in seventh grade, my teacher became needlessly angry at a student who was late. It wasn’t the student’s fault. She couldn’t drive, and her mother left the house later than normal. My teacher realized this once she was able to calm down. She stood up in front of the class, told everyone what she did wrong, and publicly apologized to the student. Immediately she went from seeming cruel in her class’s eyes to being humble and willing to own up to her mistakes. Not only did her apology allow her student to feel seen, but it also set an example for everyone else and made the classroom feel safer. An example of bad communication that could teach dangerous life lessons happened during my junior year in high school. I asked my teacher about a rule that didn’t make any sense to me. I didn’t want to be rebellious, I simply wanted to know the motivation behind the rule and how it was supposed to help us. Instead of explaining that she didn’t know, she said that, “that's just the way it is.” I believe that this could lead students down a dangerous path. If they believe that rules are “just the way they are” than when they are adults, they won’t stand against rules that are constricting or harsh. Instead, they will just blindly accept them. If my teacher took a few seconds to admit that she didn’t know the reason behind the rule, I would have felt satisfied with that answer and would have gone to the person who made the rule with my questions. Instead, a lack of communication could have potentially damaged my view of my own rights.
In conclusion, one of the most important soft skills in education is communication. Communication allows leadership to be well-structured, helps students feel seen and heard, and can even teach students important life lessons. If communication is lacking, students feel stifled, teachers are frustrated, and the education system can quickly spiral downhill. On the other hand, if communication is fostered, the classroom becomes welcoming and safe and the leadership is organized. In this way, the educational system can continue to champion students for generations to come.

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