Speech, Fear and the Movies

I took my 7th grade son to see "The Kings Speech" yesterday.  Even though it has a "R" rating, it is no worse than Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings.  In fact, it is much more mild.  The only reason for the R rating is a couple bad words, that are used to help the King get over his fear of those words.

Something I've realized after watching this movie is that really, everything comes down to self-confidence.  You can have money, power and fame, but without confidence, none of it matters.  That's the essence of the movie. 

It got me thinking about public speaking.  I'm lucky that my son is taking a public speaking elective at his school, taught by another mom who volunteers.  This mom happens to be a national debate champion, which is why I forced him to take the class.  He enjoys it, because she is so funny and so interesting.  I figure middle school is the time to do this, before all of the self-confidence dries up or is stifled out of kids.  In middle school kids are still willing to try new things. 

Plus, these days young adults are so lacking in social graces because they've been glued to their screens and phones and texts, never looking up to see how their words affect others.  In "The King's Speech," the King and his crew were befuddled by the "new" technology of the radio.  Talk about fear!  And they weren't even being filmed!  The King could get away with having a personal coach on the radio, but in today's multi-media society it just wouldn't fly. 

Our children grew up with TV, grew up ON TV (if their parents videotaped them), even put themselves on TV (Youtube).  They don't fear the screen, but they DO fear the real life public speaking.  Hiding behind a screen allows them to be separate from the real experience, where your heart races, you see people staring at you and you get an actual physical, audible response to what you are saying.  That's a lot more responsibility than dashing off a few words on a screen and clicking SEND. 

On another topic, I've started a fabulously fancy pair of gloves from Kristin Nicholas' Color by Kristin.  She really is the queen of color.  I'm also working on a sweater for my 7 year old daughter from this book and using my own colors. 

Color like this is very cheering on the drab, winter days in Cleveland.  Like the bright colors the Canadians paint their barns to ward off the endless white, I choose knitting projects that bring cheery color back into my life.