From: Judy Kuster
Date: 10/9/00
Time: 10:40:21 AM
Remote Name: 134.29.30.79
A question from a former college debater, who was always terrified unless I had a "canned speech." (My motivation for joining the debate team was a crush on the coach. I've been married to him for over 30 years now;-) One of your remarks - "I persisted in speaking in front of the class and by the end of highschool I was leading the school debating team" - is very interesting. I believe the American actor James Earl Jones reports a similar experience with speech/dramatics/debate in high school. Did your debate competition judges make allowances for the stuttering or did you lose speaker points because of it? Was there any particularly helpful coach's suggestion or encouragement to get you to participate in debate, or was it basically self-directed that you joined the team?
Judy