Being Direct.

I have found that in high school, some of our comrades have decided that the best way to handle certain situations is avoiding the matter at hand. They think that skirting around the edges of an important topic of discussion may avoid offending others and is therefore the right path to choose when commenting on touchy subjects. This often leads to instances where there is no closure.
My advice? Do not beat around the bush.
However, I may be impartial to that side of the argument due to my personality. Whenever someone is very direct with me on a subject, I find it refreshing. That may be the case due to the quantity of times I have had conversations where individuals beat around the bush when there is no need to. This may also be the result of my personal opinion on the overwhelming sensitivity of our high school population. I would rather have someone hurt my feelings with the truth than attempt to preserve them with sugar-coated comments. But is that my personal belief.
I do understand that there are sensitive people and also sensitive topics that should be allowed sugar-coating when necessary. Sometimes direct comments can be viewed as mean, rude, or inconsiderate, even if that was not the intention of the one being direct. Accusations like these are what makes people fear their involvement of direct conversations.
My solution for this discrepancy between when one should be direct and where they should be indirect is difficult to teach due to the fact of the matter being that each situation you are presented with needs to be individually assessed. One must consider a number of variables such as: whom you are talking to, what mood this person is in, whether or not you are able to be direct and considerate at the same time, and how sensitive the topic of discussion is. With all those accounted for, one may be able to handle the situation properly. Before commencing, ALWAYS ASK, "Is this really worth discussion?", because letting certain subjects is more often the best case scenario than most people believe,
Another handicap of why individuals are not able to decide when and when not to be direct is the use of cell phones. You cannot asses properly when you and whom you are speaking to are hiding behind screens nowhere near each other. This prevents one from hearing the tone of the other person and can change the outcome of many conversations, therefore giving many individuals the wrong impression of when and when they cannot be direct.
Best of luck, when in doubt, just try and make them start laughing.
JSL