Talking Heads and Firm Handshakes

The last Ambassadorial Scholar welcomes the first Global Grant Scholar

(RE-POST FROM September 6, 2013)

Today I gave my first Rotary talk. It was to the Rotary Club of Corpus Christi in my sponsor District 5930. This was a good event to make because I really got to see how Rotarians in my city like to do things. It wasn’t too terribly different from other luncheons I’ve been to, but then again, I’m one of those people that’s made a point of going to a lot of events & luncheons.

I find it funny that so many people feel the need to ask if I (or whoever is speaking) am nervous. I try to answer truthfully when asked, but I don’t know how many people actually believe me. The answer is usually, “Not anymore than usual.”

I’ve been public speaking since I was 11 years old. I was lucky enough to go to an unusual elementary school for 5th & 6th grade, in the Texas Hill Country. We were small and both classes were taught together with 2 teachers – maybe 20 students total. Our 6th grade teacher’s (Mr. G) philosophy on education involved hands-on learning. We had traditional classes during the day, of course. We also ran our own business, The Fifth And Sixth Grade Incorporated. We ran a snack shop after school and made our own games to sell.

For one class a week, maybe more, we would go to our work shop behind the school building, next to the playground, and build our games. One of our biggest sellers was the “Weather Rock”. The rock consisted of a Limestone rock hanging from a wire frame. We drilled a hole in each rock and built the frames (I think sometimes from discarded barbed wire, everyone had barbed wire lying around, and every kid knew how to handle it). Instructions came with the rock. I don’t remember them all, but things like
If the rock is wet, it is raining.
If you can’t see the rock, it is foggy.
If the rock is hot, it is sunny.

The humor of such a simple item from a pre-teen group of entrepreneurs was always well received.

In the 6th grade I was elected the snack shop manager. As an 11 year old, 6th grader, it was my duty to meet the Lance Snacks truck with the assistant manager (a 5th grader) for our weekly order. It was up to me to decide which snacks to sell in our shop and how much to price them. This means that at 11 years old I had to track our shop’s sales, know which items were doing well, which weren’t, and what the students (customers) were asking for. Then I had to determine how much each item cost from the distributor and determine a reasonable mark-up that would be sellable to the students, but still turn a good profit for our organization. You think I’m making this up? Not a chance. Mr. G was always there to help us through it, but he had a way of making us want to try it on our own. Every student had a job and we ran the organization like a democracy, every voice counted, and when need be, certain ideas were taken to a vote.

But what does this have to do with public speaking, you ask? In order to sell our products (and our organization) we traveled around to Rotary meetings, hospital fundraising events, town hall meetings, and the rest to talk about our organization. Sometimes we were there to donate money, sometimes to ask for money. Our public speaking training took place during occasional Social Studies classes or after school. We practiced “a firm hand shake”, eye contact, word emphasis, and the subtleties of linguistic turns.

It was the best education and I have been thankful ever since for Mr. G’s brilliance in education. Almost all of us went on to graduate in the top of our classes throughout high school and college.

The 5th & 6th Grade Incorporated

You know, I never heard of Mr. G winning an award or formal recognition. But he sure had the admiration of the community and his 20 years of students.