Buehler, E. C.

English

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The Gavel of Delta Sigma RhoVolume 30 | Issue 1 Article 311-1947Presidents Page...Speech Education in Business andIndustryE. C. BuehlerUniversity of KansasFollow this and additional works at: https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/gavelPart of the Speech and Rhetorical Studies CommonsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by Cornerstone: A Collection of Scholarly and Creative Works for Minnesota State University,Mankato. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Gavel of Delta Sigma Rho by an authorized editor of Cornerstone: A Collection of Scholarly andCreative Works for Minnesota State University, Mankato.Recommended CitationBuehler, E. C. (1947). President's Page...Speech Education in Business and Industry. The Gavel of Delta Sigma Rho, 30(1), 3-4.THE GAVELPresident's Page . . ."Speect Education in Business and Industry'The present growth and expansion ofspeech education in the field of businessand industry are outrunning the incresedspeech activities which we are now experiencing in our college classrooms. Infact, much of our present day emphasisupon speech in the academic field prop-ably springs from the demands originating in the outside world. Many of uswho work in sheltered halls are unawareof what is going on in the non-academiccircles of the business world. There arereasons for this. We are surrounded byall kinds of barometers and fact-findingsources which supply us with the vitalstatistics of our profession. The factsare constantly poured out to us. We aretold about the increase in enrollment,the number of students in each class, thenew courses offered, the number andqualifications of teachers available etc.;but when it comes to getting a true picture of speech education in business andindustry, we fall back on personal opinion and guess work. There are no bureaus or commissions or census takersto supply us here with the reliable data.I do not claim to know all the facts;but after organizing and teaching sixty-two speech clubs and classes among business groups in the Mid-West during thelast twenty-six years, and after givingsome hundred lectures on the subject ofspeech making to private firms and business organizations and having followedthe developments of speech trainingamong adults generally, I have madesome observations which I propose to discuss hoping they will be of some interestto our GAVEL readers.The interest and activity in speech education in the business world are muchmore extensive than most college teachers realize. For instance, in a near-bycity of 400,000, one single organizationconducts annually a speech improvementprogram with a regular staff of paid instructors and boasts a regular annual enrollment of 350 students. In this samecity there are at least a dozen otherspeech teachers who offer classes privately for pay. The Dale Carnegie Instituteis now starting Its 26th class. Severalcolleges and universities are offeringnight classes through Extension Centers.Many of the civic clubs, literary clubs,and fraternal organizations of the cityare carrying on some form of speechtraining along with their regular activities. Recently there were organized several new Toastmasters' Clubs, Parliamentary Law Clubs, and Current TopicsClubs. These latter groups operate without a regular teacher.We see the trend on a national scale.National institutions and big corporationsoffer speech training programs, amongthem: Westinghouse, General Electric,International Harvester, BituminousCoal Institute of America, The AmericanBankers' Institute, and many similar national organizations.Speech work in the business world differs widely from that in our own collegeclasses. First, one is impressed with thediversification in both the student personnel and the content of the courses.Business speech courses are usually opento anyone who has the price of admissionregardless of age, professional standing,or previous education. In one class of18 students, a few summers ago which Iconducted, the age range was from 15 to()6, the educational level was from thefourth grade to Ph.D. and beyond. In thisclass there was a fifteen year old highschool girl, a butcher, a coon trapper, aprominent corporation attorney, a Deanof The School of Engineering of a StateUniversity, a farmer, an insurance salesman, a banker, a movie actor, a copywriter, a merchant, a truck driver, a salesmanager, a bookkeeper, two housewives,and two stenographers. And this, by theway, I consider to be one of ray most successful classes.For the most part, students enter thesecourses of their own free will and accord.The average age is about 35, more thanten years above the average age of thecollege student. This added maturitybrings with it a certain mental perspective, a seasoned judgment, and a realistic approach which flavors the content ofthe speeches. Some of the class membershave had unusual experiences. For instance, I had one student who had spentmore than thirty hours at the conferencetables with John L. Lewis. Another student was the private airplane pilot of thelate F. D. Roosevelt on his tours to theinternational conferences at Casablancaand Teheran. He dined with Churchill,Stalin, and Roosevelt. Among these moremature men and women with a wealthof personal experiences, the characterand personality of the speaker high-lightsthe speech-making process. It is easyto see, therefore, that these classes aremore realistic than are most collegespeech classes. Many of these studentspeakers feel that they have earned theright to speak.The enrollees may be classified intofour main groups. In Group I are thosewho are excessively timid and shy. Theyfeel insecure and are personally ambitious to get on in the world. They feela lack of education and suffer from inadequacy and inferiority. In the secondTHE GAVELgroup are those who feel that they wouldlike to give a better account of themselves before committee meetings, at salesconferences, and in audience situationsin general. In this group may be founda number of college graduates who welcome an opportunity for further self-improvement. In the third group are thosewho seek more poise and self confidence.They would like to be more articulate inbusiness and social situations in general.Tbey have no definite reason for takingthe course except to keep mentally alert.In the fourth group are those who craveattention and want to be heard. Thesepeople want to be saved from loneliness,and a speech class gives them a widercircle of friends and acquaintances. Itis tills longing to be saved that has stimulated the interest of some adults whohave lived ten or twenty years beyondthe formal academic ventures of college.One word should be offered about thepractical benefits of these courses. Onthe whole the results are most gratifying. This probably is the real reasonwhy these classes are so popular. Frankly, I think the results are more gratifying than in the college classroom. Thereare certain inherent advantages whichmakes these results possible. These students know what they want. They aremotivated by the desire for self-improvement. The speech-making laboratory ismore ideal in its character than that of atypical college class. The audience ismore akin to the rank and file of listeners of most public meetings. The emphasis is upon speaking skills, not theory. The laboratory method is used almost altogether. Usually there are notextbooks, no examinations, no shot-gunquizzes, no bells or whistles to stop theclass. The audience is less artificial andI dare say less critical. The teacher is notpre-occupied with giving grades or making out reports.One further advantage which probablyoutweighs all others lies in the fact thatthe in.structor is free to fit the course tomeet the needs of the group. He is nottied to a two-hour credit course in basicspeech, or a three-hour course in extempore speaking, or a two-hour course indebate, etc. Here he is free to shakedown from his experiences and his knowledge of speech training the pertinentprinciples which will help a specific groupthe most. From his personal resourceshe is free to make up one single custom-built program. This is something he cannot do for the college student.In closing, I should say that I am notsure that our work in our hallowed hallsis half as good as we think it is or thatthe leaching in speech making in the fieldof business and industry is half as badas most of us believe it to be. I am inclined to believe that some of the bestpublic speaking in America today, andsome of the best teaching that is done inour field, may be found miles away fromthe ivy-clad walls among the prosaic public speaking class rooms filled with menand women from ranks of business andindustry.E. U. BUEHLERUNIVERSITY OF KANSASBEQUEST POR THE GAVELTo the Editor:School of Speech. Nortlnve.steni rnivcrsityEvanston, lllinoi.sPlease send me all issues of the GA^'EIJ each year (November, January, Marcli. May).Name:Address: (Street)(City)(State)Chapter: Year: ^Present Occupation:

Presidents Page...Speech Education in Business and Industry

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Presidents Page...Speech Education in Business and Industry

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