Many people believe that public speaking is an unnecessary skill that should only be perfected by those who will use it everyday. They feel that if they go into an industry that does not traditionally require public speaking, they will not ever need to use it. This couldn’t be farther from the truth.
With the overwhelming expansion of technology that makes communication happen at the speed of light, more and more companies are investing in technology that makes it easy to connect their offices all over the world. Because of this growing technology, public speaking is becoming more and more necessary regardless of what industry you are employed in.
Further, if you hope to advance in your company public speaking is essentially required. It makes absolutely no sense to promote someone who cannot effectively speak to the people they are in charge of. You could be the most knowledgeable person in your entire company, but if you are unable to share that knowledge with others, you will continue to stay in the same low-level position for which you were hired.
Even beyond the world of employment, public speaking has wide reaching benefits. The confidence to get up in front of people and make a speech results in a fuller sense of self-confidence. The fear of public speaking is widely recognized as the top fear of the western world, conquering this fear makes your more confident in yourself in general.
Also, being an effective public speaker makes one on one talking a breeze. After mastering the ability to control and keep the attention of an entire audience. The verbal and non-verbal skills that public speaking teaches is particularly useful in these situations, so your ability to speak to one or only a few other people at one time improves significantly.
Such skills are particularly helpful in interviews, when you are expected to speak clearly and answer questions directly and effectively while still entertaining your interviewer. Public speaking skills are a huge boon to any job candidate, because they always stand out in interviews and make themselves memorable.
The bottom line is that if you hope to be a major part of your company or your community you will be expected to speak in front of people. It is in your best interest to pursue public speaking before you graduate so that you will be fully prepared for the demands of the real world.
Unfortunately, even given all of the evidence to the importance of public speaking, the America education system continues to ignore it. While in high school we are required to take a “speech” class, this class hardly qualifies as a public speaking class. Most high school students sleep through this class because it requires such little effort. The state of this class is a testament to exactly how value our education system places in the skill of public speaking, and frankly, it’s a sad state of affairs.
Even on the college and university level public speaking is brushed under the rug. We are required to take classes like Wellness that show us how to mediate and nap correctly, but we are not required to learn a skill that would clearly benefit us after we graduate. I feel that this makes absolutely no sense.
The job of a university is to adequately prepare us for the demands of the real world and educate us as to how to best handle life after college. Because public speaking is not a required course for graduation, universities will continue to send their students into the real world under-prepared and unaware of what will be required of them.
Universities offer public speaking classes, but restrict them to majors such as communications and journalism. And while it is obvious that these fields require public speaking, it is completely false that others do not. Even though public speaking is typically unassociated with fields such as engineering, research, and creative writing, these fields are constantly moving into the public light.
The United States’ education system needs to embrace public speaking and understand that it is a necessary skill that all should possess. If schools were to start training people to speak effectively, they would have many more effective and successful students.
The ability to speak well in public is necessary in today’s society. It is in your best interest to seek out proper education in public speaking since the university will not do it for you. This ability will only help you once you graduate. If you choose not to improve your skills before you graduate, you will certainly feel the negative effects afterwards.
Jessica Huseman is a sophomore journalism and political science double major. She can be reached for comment at [email protected].
