Transcriber's Note
The Table of Contents for this issue is found at the end of the text.
THE SPEAKER
EDITED BY
PAUL M. PEARSON
No. 5
PEARSON BROTHERS
PHILADELPHIA
nteaching public speaking the final purpose must be to train thewill. Without this faculty in control all else comes to nothing.Exercises may be given for articulation, but without a determinedpurpose to speak distinctly little good will result. The teacher mayspend himself in an effort to inspire and enthuse the student, butthis is futile unless the student comes to a resolution to attainthose excellencies of which the teacher has spoken. That a studentmay become self-reliant is the chief business of the teacher. Tosuggest such vital things in a way that the student will feelimpelled to work them out for himself, this is the art in allteaching. To tell a student all there is to know about a subject, orto present what is said in such a way that the student thinks thereis nothing more to be said, is to dwarf and stultify the mind. Theinclination of most students is to depend upon the teacher with ahelplessness that is as enervating as it is pitiable. Too manyteachers, flattered by this attitude or possessed of a sentimentalsympathy, encourage it. Thought, discretion, and courage arerequired to put a student on his own resources and compel him tostay there until he has acquired self-mastery.
Public speaking cannot be exchanged for so much time or money. Itcannot be bought or sold; it comes, if it comes at all, as theresult of a wisely-directed determination. The teacher's part is toexalt, enthuse, stimulate. He must criticise, certainly, but this isgenerally overdone. Like some teachers of English who can neveroverlook a misplaced comma, whose idea of English seems to be tospell and to punctuate correctly, there are teachers of public[Pg 2]speaking whose critical eye never sees farther than gesture,articulation, and emphasis. With this attitude toward their work,they become fault-finders rather than teachers. They nag, harrass,and suppress. The business of the teacher is to make the student seevisions of beauty, truth and love, to open up to him these mightyfields that he may go in and possess them. To implant a yearning, anunquenchable, all-consuming desire to comprehend and to express theemotions of which his teacher enables him to get glimpses.
Exercises? Yes, all the student can stand without becoming a drone.Criticism? Yes, but no quibbling, no nagging. Criticism is somethingmore than fault-finding. The teacher exalts his profession, ennobleshis art, and begets consideration for himself when he maintains thehig