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Some Students Say Having To Speak in Front of the Class is an Unreasonable Burden For Those With Anxiety and Are Requesting Alternative Options (theatlantic.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: For many middle and high school students, giving an in-class presentation was a rite of passage. Teachers would call up students, one by one, to present their work in front of the class and, though it was often nerve wracking, many people claim it helped turn them into more confident public speakers. "Coming from somebody with severe anxiety, having somebody force me to do a public presentation was the best idea to happen in my life," one woman recently tweeted. According to a recent survey by the Association of American Colleges and Universities, oral communication is one of the most sought-after skills in the workplace, with over 90 percent of hiring managers saying it's important. Some educators also credit in-class presentations with building essential leadership skills, and increasing students' confidence and understanding of material.
But in the past few years, students have started calling out in-class presentations as discriminatory to those with anxiety, demanding that teachers offer alternative options. This week, a tweet posted by 15-year-old high school student declaring "Stop forcing students to present in front of the class and give them a choice not to" garnered over 130,000 retweets and nearly half a million likes. A similar sentiment tweeted in January also racked up thousands of likes and retweets. And teachers are listening.
But in the past few years, students have started calling out in-class presentations as discriminatory to those with anxiety, demanding that teachers offer alternative options. This week, a tweet posted by 15-year-old high school student declaring "Stop forcing students to present in front of the class and give them a choice not to" garnered over 130,000 retweets and nearly half a million likes. A similar sentiment tweeted in January also racked up thousands of likes and retweets. And teachers are listening.
I just asked my 14 year old, who has social anxiety. Even he realizes that it is an important skill to have experience with, even though it scares the crap out of him. This seems to be a 'bubble wrapped child' problem.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Indeed. Standing in front of the class is a problem for people, as they want people to like them; they need to learn the comedien's trick (Thank You, Dethklok): hate the audience.
I have an opposite fear: Sometimes I have to sit in an audience while someone who knows diddly squat about Open Source gives a speech about it (or even a keynote), and I would really like to engage them right in front of the audience and point out all of their mistakes, but in general that doesn't work for the audience. I just hate to sit through those things. About my most productive response was to write this in response to a completely clueless speaker.
But how did I become a speaker? I had a neurological deficit resulting in a speech impediment and coordination problems. Throughout 1-12th grade, I took at least 10 years of either instruction from a speech pathologist or year-after-year enrollment in the school's rhetoric class (which wasn't really addressing a problem in speech pathology). So, any fear of audiences was beaten out of me.
Most people hate and fear being in front of an audience. For some, the solution really is for them to one-on-one with a teacher. But for most, the solution would be early instruction that makes them more comfortable with the situation. The sink-or-swim method of just putting them in the front of the room is probably not the right way.
Bruce Perens.
I have an anxiety disorder. Well, technically I have a sensory processing disorder which overloads my brain which then causes my mental state to break down to severe anxiety. I have had the problem since birth. This makes me incapable of handling just day to day life let alone stress. Things that are slightly stressful for normal people are nearly completely impossible for me (eg. going to the doctor).
Anyway, I did all the public presentations. I even took speech specific classes in college where I was giving speeches 3 times a week. I didn't like it. It didn't get easier and it didn't better my life in any way. I wouldn't do it again.
Back then I didn't know something was wrong with me so I forced myself to do a lot of stuff like take speech classes. I never got the help I needed as a kid or even adult which was really hard on me but I kept pushing myself. Turns out I was just making myself worse because this wasn't something I was doing wrong but instead something is physically wrong with me. I finally started getting treatment at 40 years old but honestly it's a bit late and there isn't anything that helps much.
Not just with standing in front of the class, but with dealing with humanity in general. Or technology, really.
Alternative Right.
I have grade anxiety.
Give me an "A" or I'll cry.
More seriously, tests, reports, and lab projects are huge stress-inducers, often prompting even more anxiety than oral presentations. Should passes be given for tests, reports, and projects? School is about learning things that are not already mastered and are usually challenging, which causes stress, anxiety, and frustration in most people.
If there is a true need to excuse students from major requirements, then the grade report should reflect the excuse. If the excused activity doesn't affect grades, then the activity can be considered optional. However, if grades are affected, then giving full credit for an excused activity directly penalizes other students. In that case, the choice is no longer solely whether to excuse a student but rather whether to penalize the excused student or to penalize the other students.
I had to present my grad school research to a smallish group of people once. So I got up there and did all the typical smooth talker thing, the opposite of how I really am, hand waving, always sounding confident, etc. Afterwards they shook my hand and said it was a good talk. When they left I then told my prof that I was nervous since I hadn't prepared as much as I should have and was winging most of it. She blew up and told me I wasn't being professional, yada yada yada. But it worked. I can still pull out that character and put on a good handwaving show when I need to, or even when listening remember to ask relevant questions to make up for the fact that I wasn't paying as much attention as I should. It's a useful skill.
(Later the prof was upset I hadn't signed up for a local conference, and she said "it doesn't matter if you're interested in the topic or not, you need to get out there and schmooze!" Good advice that's better to learn earlier than later.)