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From: Russ Hicks
Date: 17 Oct 2006
Time: 10:32:46 -0500
Remote Name: 71.123.208.188
Hi Michelle, ..... That's a very interesting question and one that no one else has asked so far. Cool! ..... At speech camp, yes indeed, public speaking was very definitely emphasized. There were two kinds of exercises and they were NOT optional! <grin> The camp had about 90 boys (no girls in those days!) and we ate in common dining hall. And after every meal we had "announcements." We held up our hand and were called on by the camp director. (Typically we had time for about 10 announcements per meal.) These announcements, given simply standing up at our seats, were very simple. My most common announcement was just, "My name is Russell Hicks and I come from Columbus, Indiana." I must have given that announcement a hundred times over the course of my camp life! ..... Then about every two or three weeks it was our cabin's (age group's) turn to give "Round Robins" which were short speeches, maybe 3 or 4 minutes, standing up by the camp director's table in front of the entire camp. We had thoroughly rehearsed these speeches back at our cabins, so we were really prepared. Typically we would stand there at rigid attention, with our arms behind our back at "parade rest", and slowly turn our heads back and forth to make eye contact with the entire room. Looking back on it now, it looked more like a military staff briefing than a good speech, but hey, we didn't know a thing about Toastmasters in those days! Ha, ha, ha! But it certainly DID accomplish the purpose of getting us up in front of an audience and TALKING! We were scared to death, but let me tell you, it worked! ..... And after every announcement and Round Robin, our "speech correctionists" (as we called them back then) would review our performance and tell us how we did and suggest ways to decrease our stuttering. As long as we didn't stutter, we did fantastic! Wow, what pressure! But NO STUTTERING was what was being taught in those days. Even today, that's the primary objective of fluency shaping. ..... Did it help me? Yes, absolutely! That was no doubt one of the best things about my camp experience. Even though the emphasis was on no stuttering, it certainly DID give us all experience in public speaking. ..... Excellent question, Michelle! I wish you the best, ..... Russ