A lot of my previous posts have been somewhat negative, so I thought it was time to get off the cranky wagon and start to offer something more positive for everyone to enjoy.  One thing I believe is that everyone has something to offer. When I was younger I used to be amazed from the fact that I could learn something from a 2-year old.  Don’t laugh, I am serious.

 I honestly believe that I and you can learn from 2-year olds. 2-year olds learn and live from a purely instinctive basis and as we get older we start letting experiences, intellect and peer pressures, to name just a few influence, numb our instinctive impulses. I don’t think this is a bad thing, however, I do think we need to try and balance our influences from primeval to the higher level self-actualized processes of learning and acting. For example, 2-year olds do not go on diets, they do not care about what you think about them, they do not care about what you think about their weight or if they are ugly or smart. They do not care about name brands, marketing and they are hard to motivate to do something they do not want. We adults do things we do not want to do all the time. If you pay an adult enough they will pretty well do anything. One thing I have noticed about adults is that they have forgotten how to play. When was the last time you played? I did not ask when was the last time you competed or exercised but the last time you played.

This article is not about 2-year olds, it’s about education and the ability to teach, learn, understand, comprehend, to be motivated and hungrily happy with the cognitive process of the aforementioned. One of the things that have been happening to me lately is what I call the Socrates effect. I have been reading a lot more about Thailand. As I read more about Thailand I have begun to understand my understanding of Thailand more. The more I read and the more I learn about Thailand, the more I begin to understand that there is so much I do not understand at all about Thailand. I have been privileged to have been lent a lot of books lately and have been fortunate to have had the time to read more books lately. I usually do a lot of reading daily, but for the past 20 years it has primarily been digital reading. In addition, it has usually been very technical. I must admit that when offered between a great classic novel and a technical text book on computer programming or even English grammar, I often more than not choose the technical text book. Who am I trying to fool here anyway; I always choose the technical text book. For some reason I have a difficult time getting mentally and emotionally involved with fiction. If you give me a true story or an autobiography then I quickly get lost in the story and have a difficult time putting it down.

To get to the point of this article I would like to introduce you to Dr. James C. McCroskey. Dr. James C. McCroskey is a Scholar in Residence in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Alabama @ Birmingham. For 25 years (1972-1997) he served as chair of that department at West Virginia University. McCroskey received his B.S. degree in Speech and English from Southern State (SD) Teachers College, his M.A. in Speech from the University of South Dakota, and his D. Ed. from the department of Speech Communication at Pennsylvania State University. Prior to joining the faculty at WVU he held positions at Illinois State University, Michigan State University, Pennsylvania State University, Old Dominion University, and the University of Hawaii. He also taught high school Speech and coached debate in Scotland and Watertown, South Dakota (McCroskey, 1995). I was introduced to Dr. McCroskey by Ajarn Orpheus Stephens of Ramkhamhaeng University. Ajarn Stephens gets great pleasure from sharing knowledge. With that said, I have been lent a few books by the Ajarn without even asking for them.  His goal is for people to lend their books to others once you have read them which is a simple philosophy with a complex affect. When I return the Ajarn his books there is usually a lineup of people waiting to receive the book, in fact, I sometimes just pass the book on to another student on request from the Ajarn or with his permission.

 Dr. McCroskey, as it seems, practices what he preaches. His journal articles on communication are offered free on his website. This website is invaluable or as the MasterCard people say “Priceless.” I have received countless hours already reading his publications and journals. If you are a teacher then this website is mandatory! I want to thank the good doctor for his good will and I would like to thank Ajarn Stephens for his good will in directing me to this website. As my favor to you, I wish to pass forward the good will by offering anyone that might be interested the website address. I recommend that if have any aspirations of becoming any form of teacher that this website will help you become a better teacher at the very least.
 
One last note about Dr. McCroskey is that I have read, summarized and referenced many research papers and books by him prior to being directed to him by Ajarn Stephens. In addition, he has lectured at the IIS in Ramkhamhaeng for anyone that was lucky enough to have him as a lecturer. Today the world with all its information and countries and people, seems to me, is becoming more accessible.

Dr. James C. McCroskey’s Website:
http://www.jamescmccroskey.com/

Examples of publications of Dr. James C. McCroskey:
THE IMPLEMENTATION OF A LARGE SCALE PROGRAM OF SYSTEMATIC DESENSITIZATION FOR COMMUNICATION APPREHENSION
http://www.jamescmccroskey.com/publications/049.pdf

THE EFFECTS OF COMMUNICATION APPREHENSION ON NONVERBAL BEHAVIOR
http://www.jamescmccroskey.com/publications/065.pdf

McCroskey, J. C. (1976). The problems of communication apprehension in the classroom. The Florida Speech Communication Journal, 4, 1-12. (Also published in Communication, Convention Edition, 4(2), 115-133).
http://www.jamescmccroskey.com/publications/066.pdf

Thweatt, K. S., & McCroskey, J. C. (1998). The impact of teacher immediacy and misbehaviors on teacher credibility. Communication Education, 47, 348-358.
http://www.jamescmccroskey.com/publications/175.pdf

Chesebro, J. L., & McCroskey, J. C. (1998). The relationship of teacher clarity and teacher immediacy with students' experiences of state receiver apprehension. Communication Quarterly, 46, 446-456.
http://www.jamescmccroskey.com/publications/179.pdf

WILLINGNESS TO COMMUNICATE: A CROSS-CULTURAL INVESTIGATION
http://www.jamescmccroskey.com/publications/142.pdf

Willingness to Communicate: Differing Cultural Perspectives
http://www.jamescmccroskey.com/publications/152.pdf

Bibliography
McCroskey, J. C. (1995). Brief Biography. Retrieved September 12, 2009, from James C. McCroskey: http://www.jamescmccroskey.com/briefbio.htm