Nov. 9, 2005

Sweaty palms. Nervous stomachs. Fidgety legs. Dry mouths.

A lot of folks in this world just don&8217;t like talking in front of groups of people.

Every eye is on you. Every ear is taking note.

The importance of public speaking in America has filtered its way into our schools and become a teachable skill.

I don&8217;t really remember being forced to give long reports in front of the class for a grade until eighth-grade reading class. The speaking assignments intensified throughout high school, and by college they really didn&8217;t bother me all that much.

Kids these days are one-up on that.

Thursday was oral class report day in Mrs. Tuccio&8217;s room. The kids had more than a week to pick an animal, visit the library or the Internet for research and write their findings. The over-achievers made posters, too.

I went to McLaurin Thursday expecting to see some shaky hands, hear some stutters and get a good column out of the stress the kids felt by being in front of the class.

It didn&8217;t happen.

Granted, this particular group of kids isn&8217;t shy. About 20 of 22 in the class are more likely to get in trouble for talking than be encouraged to speak up.

But in some way this class has to be representative of a world-movement to embrace public speaking.

Don&8217;t get me wrong, none of these kids are ready to hit the speaking tour circuit. Some students spoke parts of their reports too softly, other parts were completely incomprehensible, nearly everyone had to ask Mrs. Tuccio to pronounce a word and one or two held their posters over their faces.

But I didn&8217;t see anyone who battled nerves just to get out of their chair.

Presentation is a fourth-grade benchmark, Mrs. Tuccio told the class. They have to learn how to present something and say it in a way that others can understand, she said. And the benchmark includes the whole package, stand up straight, speak clearly, don&8217;t fidget.

They started off easy. There weren&8217;t many rules on the subject matter of the reports. Pick an animal, and tell us about it.

The feline family was in the majority &8212; three lions, a leopard, a cheetah, a jaguar and a plain old house cat.

The presentations were the best when the kids knew the material, Mrs. Tuccio pointed out to them.

Brianna struggled through the first page of her report with some scientific information about lions, but when she got to the part on the second page about being king of the beasts, she spoke loudly and clearly.

Jesse did fine when he spoke about raccoons, because he&8217;s seen them. (Some of his classmates said they have even tasted them. Do people around here really eat those things?)

But there were a couple of kids who pretty obviously typed in an animal name on Google and hit print. The language was well above a fourth-grade level, and the students had no comprehension of what they were reading.

It wasn&8217;t until I started talking in front of groups about something I knew and loved (newspapers) that I really felt comfortable. But it probably won&8217;t take as long for today&8217;s little public speakers to become pros.

The educational system knows that sometimes the important life skills you learn in school don&8217;t come from the textbook but from the experiences.

Julie Finley is the education reporter for The Natchez Democrat. She writes a weekly column based on experiences with Marty Tuccio&8217;s homeroom class at McLaurin Elementary. She can be reached at 601-445-3551 or

julie.finley@natchezdemocrat.com

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