NightTimeForever
Well-known member
Has anyone here been able to get a waiver for a college level speech class? I think I'm going to need one if I'm ever going to get my degree.
I really can't imagine the college accommodating you on this one. I don't know what you're studying but it doesn't really seem fair that you would be able to opt out of something that everyone else has to go through. I mean, everyone gets nervous for presentations-- it's not supposed to be easy and this is an extremely common fear.
If this were an employment situation then you would be expected to go through with it and if you weren't able to then you would probably be fired.
I think you should just go through with it... if you practice a lot in advance and put a lot of effort into knowing your stuff, then you might discover that it's not as painful as you thought it might be. I've found that if I know what I'm talking about then the presentations sort of just happens by itself. Running away from these kinds of things is only going to make them worse.
Can you possibly try and register with the disabled student services? You should be able to get special accommodations that way and just be able to show your professor proof of why you cannot give a speech in front of the class. You would be able to use this in other classes as well, if you have another presentation or something else to work around. I had registered under disabled student services, mostly only to get priority registration, since I never actually used any of the other accommodations I could have gotten. It's doubtful that you'd be able to actually waiver taking the class at all, you're most likely going to have to try and work around giving the presentations while still taking the course.
I actually did take a college speech class because it was a requirement and it really wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. The teacher put basically no points on the actual delivery of the speech so I was still able to get an A every time. I probably would have been able to waiver giving the speech in front of everyone or work something else out, but that actually gives me more anxiety than giving a speech for some reason... I would recommend you check out the disabled students program if you really feel you cannot take this class, either that or like others said email the professor and ask what can be done. Good luck.
^That's a great story!
Yeah, definitely tell your professor about your condition so that they won't grill you too hard in the Q and A (if there is a Q and A)... it will definitely help to know that you have the prof on your side and you're not going to be ambushed.
Social anxiety and fear of public speaking don't really seem like the same thing to me. I do think that some people get more anxious than others while giving presentations, but it's a common enough thing that most people should understand how you feel (especially if they're doing the same thing). And presentations aren't really social... when you're up there you have all of the control and all of the power and if you're prepared it's basically just a matter of delivering information... you don't have to actually share anything about yourself or anything.
I wish I lived out of town/state so that I have an actual, valid excuse for NOT doing the inclass presentations. My college offers an online degree program which can be completed entirely online; in the past there were some students who lived as far as CA or NJ who enrolled in my college. So they have very good reasons for NOT doing presentations in person.
You could move to another city/state halfway through the semester and say you can't do speech anymore. Maybe they can give you a waiver.
Not everyone's SA is at a place where they can challenge themselves to difficult and stressful tasks like this, and if your anxiety is too much to even fathom standing up in front of a group of people, don't do it. Know your limits and tailor your life around them, but also know that if you always avoid risks that you're going to create a feedback loop that leaves you less and less experienced socially and more and more isolated (giving a speech to just your instructor instead of to the class or not at all is also an option). Do whatever you can, work for it, and it will eventually, slowly get better.