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From: Tom Weidig (thestutteringbrain.blogspot.com)
Date: 13 Oct 2009
Time: 04:49:00 -0500
Remote Name: 88.207.200.14
Here is my non-expert opinion (and had you asked the question 3 years ago when I was on the panel, I would have given you an expert opinion :-). First, the truth of a statement does not depend on who proposes arguments in favor or against but how good the arguments are. But you could argue that a professor's statement is more likely to be correct but you cannot argue that a statement is correct because a professor has made it. I have seen so many professors getting it wrong. And also some became professors because of their political, managerial, networking or bullying power and not because they are good scientists. Second, being an expert on the panel is a political and social process controlled by our Dear Leader Judy :-). Someone needs to decide. This is especially true for key speakers at conferences. Some are really bad speakers (and scientists), and others who are very good do not even get a prominent workshop spot. Third, stuttering affects a broad range of areas, and NO ONE is expert in all of them. And even if you work in one area, you might just be a bad expert. Fourth, we cannot really measure expertise well; if you are a good chessplayer, we will see it by you beating everyone else. If we had to measure expertise by understanding stuttering, or curing stuttering, there would be no real experts!