Speech courses in high school and college are intended to make you more comfortable with making speeches and presentations in front of a class. While I understand the general purpose of the course, rarely do these classes produce the desired results. Instead of a class that focuses on telling you to get over your fear of public speaking by “getting used to it,” there should instead be a class that helps build confidence and focuses on real-life communication skills.
In middle school, I took a public speaking class that was required and it did nothing for me. I was shy and having to make a speech every week just made me more insecure and nervous. I didn’t get over my fear of public speaking that year. In high school, I made a speech in front of the entire student body for the GSA (Gay Straight Alliance) about having two mothers. Despite the positive feedback, I did not magically overcome my fear of public speaking. After countless group and individual class presentations, I still felt faint when it came to presentations. I’d forget to exhale, jumble words, and my voice trembled.
But then in my sophomore year of college, I found myself having to take a required speech course. Our first assignment: a three to four minute speech. The professor recorded us so we could watch ourselves after and write an essay analyzing what we did well and what we need to work on.
I went up and did my speech. I remembered to inhale and exhale, spoke calmly, and kept my voice even. I walked back to my desk not caring how my speech sounded or how I looked, but just knowing that I felt good about it because I didn’t faint. That night I watched the video of myself and immediately called my mom. I killed it! I was so proud of myself because not only had I felt good giving the speech, but I looked confident too. I wondered where my confidence came from. And saw that it had nothing to do with the speech class before or those class presentations. It came from my personal growth outside of the classroom and the real life experiences I had had within the last two years; interviews, jobs, internships, etc.
This is the exact reason why required speech classes need to focus on real life skills. It would be more effective of a course if it were instead referred to as a communications course and taught students how to speak and connect with their peers, with potential employers, how to interview, how to ask for a raise, and work in group projects more efficiently. The idea that one class will help you conquer a major fear is naïve and should instead start at the basic level of teaching effective communication. It should focus on more realistic goals. It took me ten years to be able to confidently make a speech thanks to my personal experiences. It’s time that schools start recognizing the need to teach life skills in the classroom environment so students are more prepared for what is ahead of them.
