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From: Steven Kaufman
Date: 15 Oct 2008
Time: 22:22:06 -0500
Remote Name: 64.12.117.137
Hi Russ, and good evening, They say it's always better to give than receive. A few years ago if one asked me if that was true, I would not have known the answer to that. But ever since I got involved with the NSA three years ago, I now know it's better to give. And the rewards really do come back a thousandfold to you. My first chance to get involved with future SLP students came when I was asked by Tammy Flores, the executive director of the National Stuttering Association, and a woman with a heart as big as the Great Wide Open, to speak at a graduate level class of future SLP students at Mercy College, a prvate school located 30 miles north of the New York City limits. Russ is a Toastmaster and a man whose wisdoms could not only fill volumes, but could give a master class on the subject of stuttering many times over. Riding up the train I swear my heart was racing as th trajectory of a Joba Chamberlain fastball headed to home plate. The moment I stepped up to speak, I saw smiles and patient expressions from people waiting to hear me, a person who stutters, give them a fresh perspective on the challenges that it brought me. All of a sudden, a calmness fell over me and off I went. I was going from one end of the spectrum to cracking pop culture and self-deprecating jokes left and right. I even sang a few karaoke lines as well. But at the end of the night, I was the teacher who realized that they learned more about stuttering than a textbook could ever tell. Please do not get me wrong, I never could dismiss a textbook's place in the educational process. But when you mix the NSA chapters with speaking to schools, wonderful things happen...collaboration, the development of chemistry...a sense of pride and togetherness working toward a common goal. I could have flown home I was so high on what an awesome experience this was! It is my goal, and hopefully those of others, to contact more schools and speak to more students, encouraging new relationships and bringing more chemistry to the front lines of making this a fluent world! Steven Kaufman