Group gave stutterer the confidence to speak
By Alonzo Weston
There was a time when having a speech impediment was considered a mental illness. If that was so, I’ve been mentally ill most of my life because I stutter.
My stutter began sometime in the fifth grade. I never knew what triggered it but I had just finished third and fourth grade with the Kerford sisters, Catherine and Edmonia, who were teachers at the old Horace Mann elementary school. Every kid I knew was scared to enter those grades because they did not want to face those very strict but good teachers. The Kerford sisters struck the fear of God in students with a painful ruler slap across the palms of their hands as punishment.
I can’t rightfully blame the Kerfords for my stutter but it makes for a good story and excuse. I’m not sure if you can inherit a stutter but my biological father stuttered as a kid too, so it might be hereditary.
For years and through school I feared public speaking because of my stutter. I tried to hide the fact I stuttered but everyone knew I did anyway. Some people even knew it enough to ridicule me and call me names like “stutterbox. It was painful growing up. But God gave me the skill of writing and drawing rather than speech as a way to communicate, so I got by pretty well.
As a reporter and columnist for the St. Joseph News-Press in my adulthood I was called upon to give speeches before large business groups and schools. I was terrified.
A friend of mine, the late Bill Gunther who owned a gym on Eighth Street I used to frequent, told me about a group he was in called Toastmasters. Bill said they could help with my fear of public speaking. I was skeptical at first because countless teachers and a few shrinks tried to stop my stutter with no success. What could this group of old men and women do?
Well, they helped me to be able to give speeches in public through a series of common wisdom and insightful lessons. After a few sessions, I was able to give speeches in public with no fear.
Toastmasters is a wonderful organization founded in 1905 by an Illinois YMCA education director named Ralph C. Smedley. Smedley saw a need for enhancing public speaking so he organized a club based on the role of banquet “toastmasters.” The club disbanded when Smedley moved away for a job promotion, but on Oct. 22, 1924, a group of men met in the basement of a Santa Ana, California, YMCA to mark the birth of today’s Toastmasters.
Through the years and today, Toastmasters has helped countless others be successful in public speaking endeavors. That’s a mighty achievement since public speaking beats death as the number one fear of most people.
The group did not cure my stutter but gave me the tools to speak in public without fear. As many who know me know, I still have a stutter in normal speaking but it does not stop me from giving speeches thanks to Toastmasters. I guess they sorta cured my mental illness.
