This weekend I heard a woman speak before a group of heavy hitters. Male and female. No, I wasn't one of them. I was the mom of one of them.
She's a school teacher so she spent way too much time explaining how nervous she was speaking to adult professionals. Her voice didn't project well. She's married to a man who's well known to the group - as a heavy hitter - and she talked about him some, which isn't professional or a cool thing for a woman to do.
But then it all changed. She began speaking about what she knows. She spoke about elementary and middle school age children. She spoke primarily about technology and communication in the family. I would guess that every person in the room has elementary and/or middle school age children - except me, of course. And technology plays a major role in all of their lives - except mine, of course.
She asked questions like, "Is it an invasion of privacy to monitor our children's technology? How much privacy do our children deserve?
The most important thing I heard her say was that all technology, phones and such, needs to be turned off at meal times and bedtime. She means "all" technology. Included the parent's. Phones need to be lined up together for the evening. All of the phones.
We need to model behavior for our kids. I still try to do this and my kids are middle aged.
I'll have to say that she ended up knocking it out of the ballpark. She followed the most important rule of public speaking.
Speak about what you know. That's the mark of a professional.
***
She's a school teacher so she spent way too much time explaining how nervous she was speaking to adult professionals. Her voice didn't project well. She's married to a man who's well known to the group - as a heavy hitter - and she talked about him some, which isn't professional or a cool thing for a woman to do.
But then it all changed. She began speaking about what she knows. She spoke about elementary and middle school age children. She spoke primarily about technology and communication in the family. I would guess that every person in the room has elementary and/or middle school age children - except me, of course. And technology plays a major role in all of their lives - except mine, of course.
She asked questions like, "Is it an invasion of privacy to monitor our children's technology? How much privacy do our children deserve?
The most important thing I heard her say was that all technology, phones and such, needs to be turned off at meal times and bedtime. She means "all" technology. Included the parent's. Phones need to be lined up together for the evening. All of the phones.
We need to model behavior for our kids. I still try to do this and my kids are middle aged.
I'll have to say that she ended up knocking it out of the ballpark. She followed the most important rule of public speaking.
Speak about what you know. That's the mark of a professional.
***
