231- TOASTMASTERS CLUB!!!...TOP Of The LINE GROUP!....

The Toastmaster Club in my home town was THE BEST "educational group" ever in my learning life!
Toastmasters International has clubs all over America and the World, and these leaders and members, meeting after meeting, year after year, are changing the way our society thinks. And what is their only problem? By far, not enough persons who should be taking the course are not members.
And this historian, researcher and educator is soooo glad to have been a Toastmaster once upon a time. I learned by doing, how to say exactly what was needed to get a point across in a brief amount of time. Someone timed us, too! Our course had a series of different types of speeches, becoming more involved as we progressed. Oh, we graduated, with a ceremony!

BUT...now that I think back over my excellent experiences, THE most important lesson learned was----NEVER, EVER use an "uh...ah...er...like...you know" in our everyday conversations and especially in talks!...NEVER! Why?...you'll lose your "audience" with highly "irigating" words and thoughts.
This U.S. government prof taught that subject for some time and like to keep up with current information and people. And have come to either mute the sound or switch "news" channels when certain current "leaders" speak. I now, uh, cringe, er, when the White, uh, House Secretary TRIES to, uh, explain and, ah, answer questions during a, a, a Press Confer-, ah, rence. He stands in front and grins the entire episode, not realizing his, ah, ah, er ignorance
In Toastmasters there was and is an "AH counter" who quietly tells each speaker the number of "Ahs" used. I feel sorry for the current President, even with the use of 12 teleprompters whenever he speaks. If the "ahs" were counted during a Toastmasters Club meeting, his number would be off the board. I'm suggesting that he take the course.

And, yes, it was so refreshing this week to listen to the British Prime Minister at the G-20 speak, and other world leaders, without any need for an "AH COUNTER!" or teleprompter!!

Another excellent class taken in college, being a philosophy major, was LOGIC and taught by the best professor I've ever known---Prof Willoughby! We studied a prescribed LOGIC text and learned to, practiced listening to speeches, preachers and TV newscasters, scripting out exactly whether that person speaking was telling the truth, and even more so, making logical sense. That class and that professor was sorely missed the day classes concluded!