Only the immortal words of Porky pig could put it so well. For most of my life, movies have provided a great escape. I will be the first to admit, while I enjoy a wonderfully well-put together classic film, I am a sucker for a Transformers or a Tron. I am looking forward with great anticipation this summer to Thor and Captain America. While the movies have provided an escape for me, once in a very great while, a film comes along that strikes a nerve and really touches my soul. For me this year, The King’s Speech was that film.
The life struggles that King George VI encountered because of his stuttering are so well played and so close to home that the film for me was a kind of cinematherapy.
I was a stutterer in grade school, and that stuttering and “stammering “ as Sister Mary Margaret called it needed to stop. If you see this marvelous film, you see the impact of stuttering on George’s life. He was content to marry, be in the King’s Navy, and raise his girls all in the shadow of his father and older brother. Quite a shy man, the thrust in the limelight at the abdication of his brother threw him into a position he was not emotionally prepared to enter. The film beautifully shows the brotherhood of George and his unorthodox speech instructor.
As I say to my students, enough plot; get to the discussion. Hi, I’m Keith and I stutter. While this is not a testimony for my stuttering, which I still do upon stressful situations, it is a chance to talk about the importance of the film, and what I can do to help those millions of people who stutter or stammer. Perhaps it’s unique that I ended up being a theatre speech major with my stutter. It really was more pronounced in elementary school where I would stutter, and of course, kids would tease. It wasn’t long that I found one of my best adolescent friends Tom, who stuttered and stammered worse than I did. Sister told me that my brain thinks too fast. That you can’t physically keep up with all the thoughts that you have to say so you stutter because of an intellectual “clog”.
The impact of the time of my life is dramatic. Combine the stuttering with the need to be the center of attention for others reasons provided quite a conundrum. I was taught to make a “square in the air” with my forefinger making the corner of the square a syllable of a word or a single syllable word. The concentration of making the square would slow the brain down and get me to enunciate every syllable of the word, slowing me down to make my speech regular. It was amazing how successful this technique was. I have no clue if Sister Mary Margaret was trained or if she just knew what to do; whatever that reason, it worked.
I still have coping skills for my stuttering in my adult life. It doesn’t happen too much anymore, but my wife jokingly calls it going into my “stage voice”. Yup, that would be one way. Another way I have learned to deal with this is by singing. Singing has set beat pattern and rhythm that keeps you from “ going too fast”.
King George puts it this way in the film:
Lionel Logue: What was your earliest memory?
King George VI: I'm not... -here to discuss... -personal matters.
Lionel Logue: Why are you here then?
King George VI: Because I bloody well stammer!
Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-... That's all, folks
Keith
I would never have guessed that you stuttered!
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