The second story was sent anonymously. His story and some of
the answers he got are below:
I am in 8th grade and this has been the worst stuttering year ever! In PE I pass by a couple of weeks with stutter free "here's. Then I have to comment on some aimless thing. I slowly torture myself through my sentences. Then my worst nightmare comes true. The teacher thinks I'm trying to be funny by stuttering. Everyday he goes, "Cut it out." I try to admit to him that I stutter. But actually saying it out loud is devastating for my already hurt self esteem. He finally believes me after weeks of trying to catch me off guard. When realizes that I am telling the truth he gives an apology but I am already ashamed of my stuttering.
I think you should talk to your parents about what happened with your teacher. Then they could call your teacher and have a conference to talk about stuttering.
From: Anthony, 9, 4/23/01
I would talk to the teacher to let them know that I really DO stutter. I would ask him please don't make fun of me and if he still didn't believe me, I would have my parents come and talk the teacher. I would try to ignore him if he continued to make fun of me. People make fun of me too, and I ignore them. This helps me. I would also try to use slow talking to see if I stopped stuttering.
From: Kristen, 10/16/01
Two other junior high school students wrote sharing that they know how the person who wrote the story feels.
From Someone who Stutters, 4/19/01
Junior high is really, really bad. I am in seventh grade and I stutter. Where I live seventh grade is the beginning of junior high school, or middle school. My stuttering this year is worse than ever. My best friend went to the other middle school in our town, so I feel alone. All my family says that I am a smart kid, but in school I don't raise my hand much because I stutter so bad. I can't say ANYTHING without stuttering. Sometimes it is so bad that when I say a word starting with "S," say, "sandwich," i will stutter for so long I start to drool. I also have some teachers who don't understand. In elementary school, from first through sixth grades I had a speech teacher, but she was really mean and not understanding. She made me talk really slowly. I also miss some school because once every two weeks I have to go to the bay area because I am depressed, and I might even have bipolar disorder. I think that everyone has the same amount of talent, its just that its distributed to different places. I feel really bad about myself because my only strength is in school, and now in Junior High, its a lot harder.
From: inexplicableman, 2/6/02
Every day I wake up in the morning, knowing I have to go to school. I like to learn, but theres one thing...... I stutter. I'm a smart person, but when the teacher asks me a question, I will say I dont know the answer (Even though I do kow it, its just to embarrising to say it). It's really hard for me now, especially since I've just started Junior High. Kids make fun of me. They sometimes call me porky pig (The pig from cartoons who stutters). I try to ignore it, but sometimes it gets to hard to ignore. Some of the words I stutter on are words that start with: W, M, B.....And a few more. I try taking me time when I stutter, but I sound like a little kid. Its hard, very hard. My mom says its just a "PHASE" but she doesn't know what I go through every day. She won't send me to Speech Doctors, cause she think it will go away. I hope it does, but I don't think it will be going away for a while. Even at lunch time, when I'm trying to order food, I'll stutter. Say I want to order a cheeseburger......I would say: Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-eese-burger. Its just not fair. Well, this is what happens at school for me. I hope one day our stuttering will go away