Did Shakespeare Destroy Your Public Speaking Confidence?
Jul 13, 2020
"Oh God, I HATED Shakespeare in school."
This is the reaction I get from 90% of my public speaking clients when they learn that, before I was a public speaking coach, I taught Shakespeare performance at an Elementary/Middle School.
I didn't think much of it the first couple times a client said this.
After all, Shakespeare isn't everybody's cup of tea.
But after 5 or 6 clients said that exact phrase to me, I started to get curious...
Why was hating Shakespeare such a common experience among my public speaking clients?
I had a blind-spot.
The kiddos I taught loved Shakespeare.
The group of rambunctious third graders I'd recently worked with got to spend an hour pretending to be witches, dressing up in crazy costumes, and thwacking each other with foam swords.
I mean, what wasn't to love?
What was different between my students' experience with Shakespeare and my adult clients' experiences?
And while we were on...
