[ Contents | Search | Next | Previous | Up ]
From: Ed Feuer
Date: 20 Oct 2009
Time: 05:52:11 -0500
Remote Name: 76.17.183.48
Michelle: Back on May 21, 2003, Joe Klein, who is on The Prof Is In list, emailed Bob Ford, a sports columnist at the Philadelphia Inquirer about the latter's usage of the word stuttering. Joe later posted on the Stutt-l listserv. I saved it because I was impressed with the wording of Joe's note and the classy reply from the columnist which is how the school should have responded to you. Joe has given me permission to post it here: Dear Mr. Ford, I have been a fan of your column for many years .... I am a stutterer, and moved to Mobile to get my Ph.D in speech pathology to study this curious disorder. I was disappointed to read in your column today the very negative use of the word "stuttering": "Judging by degree of difficulty, the 76ers were somewhere in the middle, even as he [head coach Larry Brown] followed the stuttering legacy left by Doug Moe, Fred Carter, John Lucas and Johnny Davis." Over 1% of Americans stutter, and 5% of children stutter. Many children are teased about their stuttering, and grow up feeling very ashamed, and feeling like their stuttering is a terrible thing that they should try to hide. A big part of therapy is trying to get kids to see that stuttering isn't such a bad thing -- it's just a way some people talk -- and it makes them feel better about themselves, which allows them to use the techniques that they learn without shame, and as a result they stutter much less. Using the word [as the columnist did] is just one more rock on the pile of negativity that kids who stutter have to face every day. Please choose your words more carefully in the future, and perhaps don't use the word at all, unless discussing the speech of someone who stutters (like Kenyon Martin) or when describing a GREAT stutter-step move by Allen Iverson or Duce Staley. Thanks for your time, Joe Klein. [Bob Ford's reply:] Joe -- I am terribly sorry. I meant no offense and it didn't occur to me that any could be taken. I meant that the previous coaches led the team through a series of false starts and stops. In the future, I will certainly choose another word for that. Again, please accept my apology. Take care, Bob