Stuttering At School

I am now an adult and I often here other people talking about their experiences of school life. They laugh and joke and tell different stories, it seems as if they had a great time at school.

 

This was not the case for me, school was one huge struggle, not so much with the work but because of the fact that I had a stutter. Other children would regularly mock and tease me because of the stutter, this is of course is never nice but as a young child, is very hard to take.

 

I would often ask myself questions:

 

Why have I got a stutter?

Is there a cure for stuttering?

Will I have this stutter for the rest of my life?

Why are these people being so horrible to me?

 

One particular day at school stands out. I was fourteen years of age and was in an English lesson. The teacher had organised a general knowledge quiz and the class was split into three teams. It was a quick fire quiz and the questions were fairly easy in truth.

 

It came to my turn, what is the capital of France? I knew the answer of course, however I had a voice in my head which was telling me that I would not be able to say the word "Paris" fluently.

 

The pressure of everybody listening would no doubt result in a stutter, the voice continued.

 

I so wanted to answer the question correctly but instead stated that I did not know. "I do not know" was a statement that I was confident I could say without stuttering.

 

A number of people started to laugh, not because I had stuttered but because I did not seemingly know which city was the capital of France.

 

I have to say that at that age, I would rather have people laugh at me because they think I am stupid than because of the stutter.