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From: Russ Hicks
Date: 10/20/01
Time: 8:38:06 PM
Remote Name: 24.4.254.203
Hi Cheryl,
Boy you ask tough questions! But let me give it a shot....
1. Lack of openness and acceptance: Remember, this was in the 50s, nearly HALF A CENTURY ago! Gasp! The reason we didn't discuss them was that we didn't KNOW about them back then. Stuttering was a "problem to be fixed" by hard work and great effort. Fluency good, stuttering bad. No one, not a soul, had the slightest idea there was anything else involved. The topic wasn't avoided, it just was totally irrelevant. We've learned a LOT in the past 50 years!
2. Recommend it? Yes, absolutely, IF it contained the psychological and support mechanisms we have in place today. Even in Bernie's time, in the 60's, they were just beginning to talk about those issues then. If the camp were in existence today, I'm sure they would be hip deep in those "whole person" therapies.
3. Reason I still stutter: Ha, ha, ha! No, "hard work" and "not wanting it bad enough" never did work for me, and it probably doesn't work for well over 90% of adult stutterers today. Once I joined the NSA, I began to understand that fluency and communication are different CONCEPTS, that there's nothing magic about fluency, but good communication is where it's at. I still stutter, but my room is filled with dozens of Toastmaster trophies for public speaking, including some very major contest trophies. I still stutter, but people think I'm a pretty good communicator. And there are things I can do BECAUSE I stutter, that no fluent person can do. I can reach people sometimes when fluent people can't. I'm a senior mentor in Toastmasters now, and people ask me to speak all the time. Stuttering no longer bothers me in the slightest. It can be a nuisance sometimes, but as long as I can COMMUNICATE well, stuttering is a non-issue.
Good luck, Cheryl! And thanks for your excellent questions!
Russ