Stuttering At School
I am now an adult and I often here other people talking
about their experiences of school life. They laugh and joke
and tell different stories, it seems as if they had a great
time at school.
This was not the case for me, school was one huge struggle,
not so much with the work but because of the fact that I
had a stutter. Other children would regularly mock and
tease me because of the stutter, this is of course is never
nice but as a young child, is very hard to take.
I would often ask myself questions:
Why have I got a stutter?
Is there a cure for stuttering?
Will I have this stutter for the rest of my life?
Why are these people being so horrible to me?
One particular day at school stands out. I was fourteen
years of age and was in an English lesson. The teacher had
organised a general knowledge quiz and the class was split
into three teams. It was a quick fire quiz and the
questions were fairly easy in truth.
It came to my turn, what is the capital of France? I knew
the answer of course, however I had a voice in my head
which was telling me that I would not be able to say the
word "Paris" fluently.
The pressure of everybody listening would no doubt result
in a stutter, the voice continued.
I so wanted to answer the question correctly but instead
stated that I did not know. "I do not know" was a statement
that I was confident I could say without stuttering.
A number of people started to laugh, not because I had
stuttered but because I did not seemingly know which city
was the capital of France.
I have to say that at that age, I would rather
have people laugh at me because they think I am stupid
than because of the stutter.
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