Stuttering and Accommodations with Philip Garber Jr. (304)
Download | Duration: 00:52:20
Philip Garber Jr., a 16 year old who stutters, joins Peter Reitzes to discuss his recent experience concerning his stuttering and treatment by a college professor.| Philip discusses his views
on what happened between him and his professor, speaking to the
media, what he would say to his professor if she was listening and much
more. Mr. Garber discusses possible accommodations a person who stutters
may receive in college such as having specific times in class for
students to ask questions. Mr. Garber suggests that one possible
accommodation is asking a student who stutters to give a presentation
on stuttering to the entire class. Philip demonstrates the use of speech
tools such as pausing and a soft voice to manage stuttering and
explains why such tools are not always easy to use. Towards the end of
the episode, Mr. Garber mentions that he cannot support the way the
media has demonized his former professor. |
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Posted by StutterTalk at 10/18/2011 10:04 PM 
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: stuttering philip garber elizabeth snyde richard perez pena discrimination disability
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: stuttering philip garber elizabeth snyde richard perez pena discrimination disability
It took me some time to figure out what i thought about this. i'm new to stuttertalk and am a person who stutters. i've just discovered this site recently and listened to a ton of the shows since then. i find some relaxation in listening to folks like caryn and joel disregard their stutters and be themselves.
One of the problems with Mr. Garber is his stutter. It's not forward moving and it becomes almost incomprehensible to understand his point once he's done. One thing i learned from listening to stutter talk is no one stutters in the same way.
the second thing i learned from stuttertalk is the vast number of personalities people who stutter have. This should have been obvious, but it's not something i ever thought of. Some are funny, some serious, some nice, some mean, some outgoing, some introverted. Some with charm and some without. The young man lacks charm and, seemingly, appropriateness and decor in social situations. Two examples: raising his hand for 75 minutes is extremely inappropriate for a classroom setting. If he wanted to make a point, 5 minutes does that fine, and he could discuss that afterward with the professor. It drives home the same point, if there was one to make. The second was his lack of response to the professor's email, when she tried to open the line of communication. It seems to me like she wanted to work with the young man.
To me, Mr. Garber's naiveté and lack of consideration for his professor's concerns is a bad mark on the stuttering community. my way or the highway does not work in this situation because it is the professor's class to run, not his, regardless if we as stutterers want to "say what we want to say". That doesn't give us the right to stand up in a courtroom and stutter endlessly about the judge or the case at hand; that person would most definitely be found in contempt of court.
i am disappointed in Mr. Garber and am saddened at the attention it received. The pizza man hanging up on you because you can't say "delivery" has more injustice and "victimization" to it than this.
I got off on a ramble there, but i think the biggest problem here is not Mr. Garber's stutter; it has more to do with Mr. Garber's personality, stutter or not. Again, i find it unfortunate that this is "the" stuttering story at the moment.
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Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts. StutterTalk has received emails that agree with you and emails that feel that Mr. Garber is a hero defending his right to have a voice. As the dust settles, I am sure more people will be speaking out. I certainly have been thinking about this story a lot and think there is a lot to be learned from it.
Sincerely,
Peter Reitzes
President and Host, StutterTalk
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I totally disagree with rj. For one thing, the 75 minute hands-up is in dispute. I think that Philip displays a warmth of character and is empathetic to the unwelcome attention and hate-mail his college teacher received.
There were two of us with severe stutters in my English class. We were given more than adequate attention and time to make comments and to ask questions.
I fully understood every comment that Philip made in this episode - though undoubtably, and perhaps due to this unfortunate incident, it is much more pronounced and severe than it has been on his YouTube videos and in the Theatre Company videos. But I heard him make his points very clearly indeed.
I am not sure about rj's 'courtroom example' and its relevance.
Philip has always struck me as being a highly intelligent as well as courageous person - and if he lived in the UK then I would be glad to have him as my fellow stuttering friend.
A little more compassion and understanding from rj might be appropriate.
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Mark,
Thank you for your comments. This is such an interesting situation. To some extent, it seems that there are different ideas of who needs to be showing compassion. Some are calling for the professor to be more compassionate, some are calling for Philip to be more compassionate towards the professor, and some are calling for one another in the stuttering community to be more compassionate towards either the professor or Philip.
Thanks again for taking the time to share your thoughts.
Peter Reitzes
President and Host, StutterTalk
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I think it is a shame that a teacher who prepared this lecture so meticulously had to deal with this juvenile. Anyone who has an ounce of sense would know that holding your hand in the air for OVER AN HOUR, is a sign of deep disrespect and an obvious distraction for the other students. You know that after 5 minutes the whole classroom has seen your raised hand, so to keep it up for so long, is more to me like a silent tantrum. "hey, you not calling on me is just going to make me keep my hand in the air until it goes numb...so, take that!"
Why......O why.... is this 'student' so much more important than the others? Why should he take important learning time away from the them, who have also paid their money to be there?
I've had classes with know-it-all students. Who want to 'answer every question'. NO ONE wants to hear their voices, but themselves. We would all prefer to listen to the lecturer.
Just because someone stutters, it doesn't exclude them from being an [deleted by editor]
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Brian,
I approved this comment because I have heard other people bring up the very points you do. Having said that, let me point out a few things. You wrote, "holding your hand in the air for OVER AN HOUR, is a sign of deep disrespect and an obvious distraction for the other students." Mr. Garber and Professor Snyder agree on most of the facts, as reporter Richad Perez Pena said on StutterTalk. But they do not seem to agree about the hand raising aspect of this story.
You wrote, "Why......O why.... is this 'student' so much more important than the others? Why should he take important learning time away from the them, who have also paid their money to be there?" Another way to look at it is, why would Mr. Garber's right to participate be less important than anyone else's right to participate? Accommodating people who stutter is in its infancy. I am curious how accommodations pan out for people who stutter.
You wrote, "I've had classes with know-it-all students. Who want to 'answer every question'. NO ONE wants to hear their voices..." There does not seem to be any evidence that Mr. Garber wanted to answer every question.
Peter Reitzes
President and Host, StutterTalk
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