[ Contents ]
From: Terry Dartnall
Date: 10/2/03
Time: 7:11:07 PM
Remote Name: 132.234.9.158
Hi Peter
"From your paper, I felt a lot of strength emanating from you and have no doubt that you would be able to take on the challenges you speak of."
All this supportive feedback I’m getting! I should do this more often!
I’ve been thinking about my early teaching days a lot recently. I think that in some ways I got lucky. I got a Teaching Fellowship at Otago University in New Zealand 1972, and although I was supposed to be working on my PhD I spent much of my time teaching and preparing. Every class was a challenge, and every time was terrified and uptight. I had a bottle of cheap sherry in my drawer and took swigs at it before going into class. (It helped!) In one class I got the tassels of Tyrolean pipe stuck in my teeth and had to keep the pipe in my mouth until class was over. I came across at ten million megahertz—I was loud! But I got on well with the students, and, looking back, I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.
Why do I say I got lucky? For some reason I don’t usually stammer when I teach. But I didn’t know this then, of course (and I got one hell of a buzz when I discovered I could teach!). If I had stammered I think it would have been a different ballpark. My self-confidence would have gone down rather than up, and it would have been hard to continue. That is why I asked you whether you could become an attorney, and not hide your stammer. I don’t think I could do it, and I have a huge admiration for anyone that can!
Terry