Don’t forget to mention this professor’s notions of what constitutes proper preparation for a speech (SFT and I attend the same school).
This actually isn’t too far off the substance of a sermon by Jonathan Edwards, which he delivered back in Boston’s Puritan past. The original text goes something like “The arrow is bent, even now bent at your heart, and it is only God’s mercy that keeps it from being made drunk with your blood.” Effective graphic imagery, although I doubt most people today would approve of sduch tactics to scare the congregation into line. “The Ogre Aspect of God”, Joseph Campbell called it when he quoted the passage. Still, it was an effective speech, which is what your student was supposed to deliver. You can’t blame her for borrowing from the masters.
The question of whether this was really appropriate for this class is entirely separate, though.
Our school had liberals? Where? I never saw a single anti-Reagan person in 4 years there.
Holy shit!
I upset my speech teacher in college when I gave my “speech to inform” on the subject “how to build a water pipe for the purpose of smoking Potential Oxidation Tissue (POT)”, but we didn’t have to obtain prior approval for any subject.
I would not be able to keep my temper if I were in your (the OP’s) class.
I probably would have used the ‘abstenence’ topic to talk about masturbation. 
Or oral sex, or any other numerous non-intercourse sexual things, heh. Heck, you could talk about foreplay, something a lot of college students ought to know about 
I had a college professor problem like this. It was a 100 level Speach Communications class. We didn’t have to run the topic past the teacher first, though.
I did a speach on legalizing prostitution.
Needless to say, the teacher did NOT appreciate it and gave me a C- based on what he said was, “My lack of supporting evidence” even though I had cites from multiple other countries and such.
I went to the head of the Communications Department and delivered the same speach and asked what he would give me for a grade. “A!” (He also asked me to join the debate club that he was the head of, but that’s beside the point.)
I told him that I had gotten a C- and he said, “Oh. I bet you have Professor X.” Yep! That’s him. I got my grade changed to a B.
Turns out, this prof was known for being a Christian Conservative who handed out bad grades to anyone who offended his fine sensibilities. I was lemon juice to his open wound! evil grin
The bigger problem was, he was the only one who taught this particular class at a time when I could take it. So I had to suffer through. He was a bit more careful with me though. I got my only B that semester in that class. As a Theatre Major, giving speaches should have been an easy A. sigh There went the GPA for the semester.
I believe** Catalyst** is referring to the fact that I have been told twice now, via the prof’s notes on my outline, that my speeches are “too memorized.” She wishes to teach us the values of extemporaneous speaking, and thus we are required to memorize the first and last lines of our speeches, and our three points, but are not allowed to memorize anything else (beyond facts or statistics). We’re supposed to practice our speeches over and over again, but use different words each time.
Her reasoning is that when you memorize things, you can blank out and forget it all, and that speaking extemporaneously will prevent those kind of blank-outs.
Lucky you didn’t speak about evolution.
That would have confirmed you were goddam Commie-loving atheist scum. :rolleyes:
I once knew a prof who told all her international students in ESL that Halloween is an evil day.
:rolleyes:
Funny you mention that. Someone in our class** did **speak about evolution…trying to de-bunk it. He spoke about the movement among scientists (led by Roger DeHart) to challenge Darwin’s theory and teach that evolution is only a theory and not a fact-- and that it has lots of holes.
If you have another speech to do, maybe you could do it on the topic of how important it is to understand what a scientific theory is, and then use the example of how evolution, a scientific theory, is true, while Intelligent Design (or whatever its current nom de guerre is) hasn’t even made it to the theory stage yet.
Wow, what the hell is wrong with your school? And people wonder why Christian extremists are often loathed.
I promise, the whole school isn’t like this. More religious than I’d care for—which is to say, religious at all—but most people here aren’t that loony…