December 18, 2014

December 18, 2014

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer 

Dear Reader, 

 

It is 1:30am and this author can’t sleep. During and after the final of his psychology class many students came up to him and were thanking and praising him for his teaching, saying their good byes and wishing him a Merry Christmas. The response was beautiful and this author felt so happy and grateful to see and hear the many results of his work. Various students told him anecdotes of how they are trying to use Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) in their lives. Although they also expressed how they are grappling and experimenting with it, they all reported positive experiences and improved relationships and performance. 

Strangely, this writing still has the effect of convincing this writer of the absolutely real and profound consequences of SVB. Although these consequences have been happening all along and are very familiar to this writer, they are in such a stark contrast to the world in which we live, which is so full of Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB), that putting it into writing seems to have a finalizing, what behaviorist call, a consequating effect. 

In this writer's teaching something powerful and consolidating has begun to occur, because throughout this semester this writer has done more writing than ever before. His written words have increasingly more effect on his students and on himself. He has written many things on their papers and not one has come back to complain or disagree. To the contrary, they all approve of him. 

During class, of course, not everybody talks, but when students write their papers, they say many important things with their written words. This author is pleased with and impacted by this process, which encourages him to write back and to trust his own writings. While he is reinforcing the students’ verbal expressions in spoken and in written form, he finds that the written form is becoming more and more important. Furthermore, he got good responses to the postings he wrote to keep his students informed. Also, his writings in his journal have become more coherent and consistent. In effect, his writings are now laying a foundation for this writer’s vocal verbal behavior. Something new is happening, which wasn’t there before, which couldn’t be there because the foundation was missing. For a long time, this writer was feeling very uncertain about his writings. This uncertainty also affected his speech. Now that his uncertainty about his writing has begun to decrease, his speech is also improving. He is achieving better results with his spoken words, because of his writings.