A College Catastrophe
Tom’s Primrose Path to the Math Mud Bath
I was an A+ student in the fields of Science and Math. However, my grade in Speech class plunged to a bone-chilling D-. What a disaster! Here’s how it happened.
The problem was my final speech project. I had to give a speech to inform, so I talked about one of my favorite topics, nuclear physics.
With my comfortable understanding of the subject, I thought I was a shoo-in for another A on my school record. After all, not many community college students knew such high-level science as well as I did. The problem was, I understood it a little too well. It seemed easy to me. What I didn’t know was how to explain it to those who didn’t agree on how easy all the equations were. I didn’t know how to slow myself down or put some of the basics into plain words. I skipped elementary concepts and spoke on the subject as though I were discussing it with fellow scientists. Only they weren’t fellow scientists. I’d forgotten the first rule: Know your audience. My audience consisted of 23 startled speech students in Fullerton, California.
At first, they sat there quietly amazed at what I was saying. Mouths hung open and popping noises emanated from their eye sockets. When I wrote some equations on the board, a couple of kids blinked at me like I was Albert Einstein. Unfortunately, that only spurred me on. I talked faster and faster and wrapped up the entire process of nuclear fission in under four minutes. Then, I sat down.
The professor was a very patient man. He said, “Nice job, Tom. Very…succinct.” Then, he turned to my fellow speech students and asked, “How many of you enjoyed Tom’s speech?” They nodded silently.
He asked, “How many of you found his subject fascinating?” They all nodded silently, again.
Then, he asked, “How many of you understood anything of what Tom just said?”
There was silence. Deafening silence. No motion at all. Then, they all started to laugh….hysterically. Not a single audience member had understood me from word one.
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