Yesterday I took another step toward getting my Toastmasters ATM-S certification by giving the first of 5 specialty speeches. The speech required me to speak "off the cuff" by preparing five speeches and then giving my evaluator the power to choose which speech I would give when it was time for me to speak. The five choices I gave my evaluator were:
search technology
global warming
war in Iraq
presidential politics
sports
The way I prepared for the 5 speeches was to decide on a main theme for each area and then do one walk through on each speech. The goal was to specifically not spend too much time on the preparation or practice all five speeches multiple times. My evaluator chose for me to speak about sports. The theme that I chose for this speech was about how sports are important in the development of children because sports teach them teamwork, how to win, how to lose, how to adapt to situations, how to communicate, and lots of other important skills. I also talked about how it is detrimental to the development of children to setup schools that don't give grades and athletic competitions that don't have any winners or losers. The basic idea was that in the real world there are winners and losers every day. If kids never learn how to lose and how to respond to criticism they will get into the real world and then go crazy when they don't get a "gold star" for everything they do. They are then more likely to be the coworker to come back into the office after a bad review and shoot up the place. So if you are a parent keep this in mind before you try to shield your child from all the trials and tribulations in the world.
Posted by troutm8 at April 4, 2007 04:39 PM