Most schools of recent decades noticeably lack preparation in public speaking. Attending an event at which average, college-educated adults are called upon to speak is painful. The inability to remain calm in front of an audience, articulate basic facts, and stay on point renders most people’s public speaking almost unbearable for the poor saps who have to endure it. Observing this obvious state of affairs unfortunately runs the risk of inspiring even more debilitating anxiety in the ill-equipped such that their next public speaking engagement will be even worse. But it has to be said, because there are solutions, even well into adulthood, to compensate for the inexcusable deficits of most education schema. In order to remedy one’s own horrendous public speaking and ability to read aloud, one must first acknowledge how abysmal it is.
While most people can avoid speaking engagements in daily life, ideally, reading is a big part of family life. In order to have a culture of reading in the home, reading aloud is an essential element throughout but especially in the early years. Listening to a practiced master of reading stories aloud, one encounters historically accurate accents, voices of different characters, sound effects, and pronunciation and enunciation that clarify and enlighten. Now that we have called this master to mind, let us put his illustrious image to the side. You will not go from an average bear to an aficionado in a matter of weeks or months. That is a goal that takes years.
So where should one begin? At the very beginning, naturally. The course of education in public reading can be a case of staying one lesson ahead of the student if need be. If you haven’t noticed, babies do not enter the world speaking in full sentences and expecting complex entertainment and storytelling. They begin mute with staring eyes, ripping apart and chewing on chunky board books with not more than a dozen words in the entire book. Do not miss this stage. Becoming acquainted with one’s own voice can begin with a simple board book and familiar nursery rhymes, likely never fully learned in our own childhood.
From there, picture books offer a wide range of text lengths and complexity. At this stage, it can be beneficial to ignore the publishing industry’s categories as intended. The type of book called “early readers” are designed for children who are learning to read independently. Children, generally ages five to nine, along with the precocious four-year-old, can read simple text with a limited number of words used, advancing from two-word sentences to short chapter books.
For the adult unprepared for reading Dickens to a brood of children, this is a category of reading material that should not be surrendered to the very young. While some early readers are excruciatingly dull, there are many good ones, some hilariously funny, others poignant and profound. Early readers were, it goes without saying, written by adults, and many include amusing details about caring for children through the eyes of mothers and fathers. It may not seem exciting, but there are subtle moments of levity and enjoyment to be gained while making one’s way through well-crafted early readers.
The real benefit is the opportunity to plow through simple text without stumbling over many lengthy and unfamiliar words. Sure, many of us could manage the same words while reading silently to ourselves some sophisticated novel or informative non-fiction, but successfully pronouncing and conveying the meaning of many words while reading to an audience is not so easy without the benefit of experience.
Thankfully, children are one of the most forgiving audiences. Children desperate for another story will tolerate halting mispronunciations, repetitive mistakes, and irregular tone. Learn while they are young, and advance to reading truly great works, perhaps even adding an accent or sound effect here and there, as the children grow.
Some early readers and simple books to consider:
Arnold Lobel’s Grasshopper on the Road and Frog and Toad series
Margaret Wise Brown’s Friendly Tales
Else Holmelund Minarik’s Little Bear series
Grace Lin’s Ling and Ting series
The advice attributed to one Chicago mayor, “Vote early—and often,” applies here as well. Read early—and often; the rewards for the family will be rich.
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