Thursday, August 18, 2011

Not Politically Correct

Last night I was reminded of an old high school Agriculture/shop teacher I had and of all the things I learned from him. He taught us everything from the common name for hand tools to "Robert's Rules of Order". All of which I still use almost everyday. I was also reminded of an old blog post I wrote and I would like to share it again.







Not Politically Correct



The other day I had to prepare a short talk to give at a meeting I had to attend. It wasn't that difficult as it was a subject I was very familiar with but you always wonder about the length and time.

Many moons ago when I was taking Agriculture 1 as a freshman at Aurora High School in Aurora NC we had a short chapter on public speaking. Our teacher, Finley Lewis, gave this simple rule which has stuck with me and guided me in every speech I have made:

"A speech should be like a woman's dress, long enough to cover the subject, but short enough to keep the interest."


Aurora High School 1960'ish













2 comments:

  1. In other words, in the eye of the beholder...Some of us have shorter attention spans :-)

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  2. I wonder if Winston Churchill had the very same teacher when he said, "There are two things that are more difficult than making an after-dinner speech: climbing a wall which is leaning toward you and kissing a girl who is leaning away from you."

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