Public Speaking: Just like the flu shot, it's good for you

In my first blog, I mentioned the array of activities that we do in my Studies in Electoral Politics class. A couple weeks ago, our assigned activity was to give a five minute stump speech. In other words, we had to speak in public. Eek!
It did not exactly come as a surprise that my professor would ask us to practice our public speaking abilities in a class focused on training us to work in politics. After all, image is everything in American politics. Knowing the utility of the exercise, however, did not make the execution any easier.
A stump speech is meant to be a candidate's brief presentation of their main goals for the future and a display of their personal character. There is a formula for this getting-to-know-you speech. Start off with a joke, a friendly jab at your competition. Use howdahells, which from what I can tell means speak in the lingo of your audience. Discuss the successes of the community as well as what needs to be improved, and fit your past experience into how you will solve problems in the future. Inspire hope and encourage people to work together. In other words, be Barack Obama. It's a little easier said than done, especially when you don't have a staff of speechwriters to take care of the content for you.
I wrote my stump speech as a candidate for the Detroit Board of Education. Ever since I made the switch from public to private school in high school because I was simply bored in the classroom, I have been interested in education policy. Within the Detroit city limits in particular, the school system is so bad that students annually rank at the very bottom nationally on reading, writing and math assessments. Because of my affection for my hometown and my passion for learning about what makes kids learn best, I chose to write my speech on the changes needed in the Detroit public school system. As I wrote the speech one Saturday afternoon in my beloved study carrel in mudd, the words flowed so naturally out of my excitement that the entire speech preparation process was practically painless. Even practicing my speech in the mirror and in front of friends seemed so natural to me because I cared so much.
When it came time to give my stump speech in front of the class the next week, I felt confident - a rarity for me when it comes to being the center of attention. Of course my presentation was not perfect, but the experience of speaking on a subject that I so dearly believe in gave me a wonderful taste of what I could do in politics.
Although my interest in politics has grown over the past few years, I have often wondered where exactly I fit in amongst all the hard-headed, no-nonsense politicos who live for political games. My attraction to politics has always been connecting with the community and having the ability to change communities for the better. It's as simple as that. Working on a stump speech that (unintentionally) was more about policy than a politician reminded me why I'm in this program and why the study of politics is important to me. As usual, it's great to be a Cole Scholar.