Tribute to Teachers

Here's Part I of my tribute to teachers, educators who guided me to teaching public speaking.

PART I
At work. In class. What happens when your boss - or a teacher - asks you to get up in front of a room to speak with others about a particular topic? And it doesn’t matter if your “time to speak” has been scheduled in advance or if your spoken response is impromptu (spur-of-the-moment). Speaking can be incredibly stressful.

There’s a word to describe this speaking anxiety, or fear of public speaking: glossophobia. This affects about 75% of the population, a common phobia.

So how does one decide to pursue public speaking as a career? Why?

For me, it started when I was a seventh grader in Tucson, Arizona at Naylor Junior High. I decided to run for the position of assistant secretary of the Student Council. I enjoyed writing and thought “why not.”

Candidates for Student Council officer positions “campaigned” to win their seat – via phone calls/meetings with friends and creating and placing posters throughout the school. The last step of the process – before students completed and returned their ballots – was to listen to the student candidates speak before the entire student body at an assembly.

I lost to my opponent.

The next day Mr. James, my home room teacher, told me I gave an excellent speech in front of the school. He remarked I should pursue public speaking.

Ninth grade. First year of high school in Tucson, Rincon High. I had the choice to take public speaking as one of my electives (instead of art). I opted for public speaking.

In addition to prepared speeches in this class, each student had to give an impromptu speech. When I heard my name, I walked to the front of the room and turned around to face 25+ students. The teacher was standing up at the back of the room.

Each speaker would select three topics written on small pieces of paper out of a bag, choose a topic to speak about, consider “main points” to cover in the presentation (30 seconds), then begin speaking for 1 to 3 minutes. I didn’t do very well (not to date myself but the topic I selected was related to the Vietnam War). I froze and the teacher prompted me a bit from the back of the room. The speech was less than stellar.

PART II – The story continues tomorrow.