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What's the point of forcing someone who wants to become an electrician or a mechanic to speak in front of the class? It's not like they will be giving presentations in the boardroom in the future.
Maybe not, but learning how to handle speaking in public isn't limited to addressing auditoriums. It is learning how to organize your thoughts and actually communicate to other humans you don't interact with on a regular basis. How to be succinct, clear, and handle the anxiety (even the mildest type). You don't think life's going to get any easier outside school do you? Better learn how to manage that anxiety instead of cater to it. Even an electrician or mechanic needs to be able to communicate a point to someone else. Every person who plans to talk to customers, bosses, coworkers, other professionals needs to know how to transfer thought into speech. THAT is the bigger part of the "public speaking" skill. Standing on stage shaking in your boots is just the final act. Come ON!
Last edited by Parnassia; 09-14-2018 at 01:46 PM..
The problem with anxiety is, counterintuitively, it doesn't get better as you avoid the things that cause anxiety.
It gets worse.
Giving in to anxiety makes it grow.
Anxiety/panic are horrible things to feel - they're meant to be horrible, as that feeling is meant to keep you safe from danger.
But arranging your life to avoid things that are not actually dangerous, they just cause that fear of danger will make it take over your life completely. You have to step boldly into the anxiety to make it shrink.
I agree with this completely. We do these kids no favor by allowing them to avoid things.
i absolutely despised public speaking, to the point that i dropped a class in college after the first day because we were going to be paired up and the last few weeks of class each pair would have a turn to teach the entire 80 minute class. that said, there were many other less lengthy presentations i had no choice but to do. i hated it then and still hate it now but if i hadn't been forced to do it i would never have learned to do things like speak up at our township committee meetings about things i disagree with in our town, or be an assistant scout leader to my son's troop or a parent volunteer for my daughters' troops. sometimes in life you have to do things you don't like but you just might learn something from them.
I think the point about a DR knowing his stuff rather than being a brilliant public speaker, function over form sounds good, but in the real world might not be so great.
For example let's say this brilliant knowledgeable Dr wants to implement a new procedure at the hospital that is better in some way than the current procedure. He/She is going to have to convince the hospital board at a minimum to accept his/her plan and the perceived increased risk of something new over the current procedure.
If he/she can't do a good presentation and sell the concept, the board may turn it's attention to other opportunities, and his/her idea will get shelved. Then his patients won't get the new procedure's benefits.
This kind of reminds me of Shindler's List. When talking to the factory owner he says something like, "Oh no, I think you misunderstand, I don't do the work, I do the presentation." That says it all about how important the presentation is in business and confirms my own experience. If you can't get the "yes" from decision makers to proceed, it doesn't matter what you are proposing.
This is why public speaking and presentation skills are so important.
Honestly this is utter nonsense by these kids. You know what, school is not easy. It is hard. Speaking in front of a group is not easy it is hard. Taking tests and getting A's is not easy, its hard. You do things that are sometimes uncomfortable not because it is easy, but because it is hard and it will challenge you. Anxiety is not an excuse to avoid doing presentations. You learn to overcome it, and if you can't then you need special attention and help.
Learning to speak in front of a group is beneficial to people who want to overcome fears and become leaders, visionaries and motivational speakers. This is not a class that should be boycotted.
Ignoring the "anxiety" side of it, most classroom presentations I saw in grade school and even college were a huge waste of time that accomplished little.
20 kids giving a 10 minute presentation each is almost 3.5 hours of wasted class time. Watching someone else (who is typically not particularly well versed in the topic or in presenting) is both boring and uninformative. And after a couple, even someone originally interested is going to be barely paying attention.
I do think there is value in actually teaching public speaking/presentation skills. But in most classrooms, that's not really what's being done with most presentations.
This is an extremely valid point. The kids who are the test audience do not learn very much, if anything.
Presentation skills are hugely important in most careers, though.
If you get a poor grade on a presentation because you are anxious, it tells you what skills you need to work on, and if you do have some kind of serious anxiety problem, you need to see a therapist, not get excused from an assignment.
I do sympathize. I hated giving presentations when I was in school as well. I did poorly on them as a result. And my anxiety over them was palpable: sweating, shaking hands, shaky voice, you name it. I detested them and worried about them for weeks before the event.
But just because you are not good at something, doesn't mean you don't have to do it and be evaluated on it. And by the time I was a couple of years into my university education, I actually got good at public speaking. Because I forced myself to work through it, used tricks to mitigate the anxiety, and practiced a lot in front of the mirror.
I think before schools give up on presentations to save the sanity of anxious students, they should instead work on public speaking through small group seminars. Being able to convey your thoughts and ideas through speech may be less common in today's world of digital communication, but it is still a necessary skill and of immense importance when it comes up.
One never knows exactly what they'll be doing later so they should just suck it up and try.
I was very shy and absolutely hated speaking in front of people. Nervous, shaking, etc... but I went with it. I may have done poorly but I learned. Am 50 now and over the years have had job interviews in front of several different people and did alright. I have worked retail in busy stores during the Christmas season(lines of 10 to 20 impatient shoppers). Much of my career has been charter fishing, where I have been front and center among a group of people. No problem at all.
Yes, there will be many instances in life after school where one will need to learn how to overcome his fears and speak among a group of people. Might as well start getting accustomed to it in school BEFORE they are put in a situation where it actually counts ----- like a job interview among all the upper level "bosses" in a company!
Yes, definitely! I am convinced that my lack of ability speaking in front of a crowd is the primary reason I was a terrible instructor in the military. I am also convinced that the lack of instructional ability that I demonstrated was a major factor in my NOT making E-7!
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