Is it my job to teach resilience now?
For the first time ever I had a student walk out of the weekend class on a second Saturday morning after turning in the outline for his informative speech. He didn't give the speech. He refused on Friday night to perform an impromptu. In the first hour, as other students were practicing their speeches as they have the opportunity to do in the Public Speaking Bootcamp (I capture every classroom of the building in which I teach and people get into groups to do run throughs), he came to my office, asked if he would get an "F" if he dropped now. I told him he would receive a "W" and that I could drop him through the school's Bobcat Web. A moment later, realizing I'd forgotten to tell him that he had to take the final step, I stepped outside and yelled to him as he walked down the hill.
He then said that he just had too much anxiety. This from a sturdy young man. So I advised him to take interpersonal or small groups for his required oral communication course.
But he wasn't the first to drop in this final week before the second weekend. I had three other people drop during the week. People who had actually turned in their sources AND their draft outlines.
Are people no longer learning how to power through their fears? We spent quite a bit of time talking about anxiety in our first weekend three weeks ago and they all did so well on their evocative speeches the first Sunday that I'm just surprised at these drops.
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