When someone who doesn’t know me well asks me what I teach, and I respond with ‘rhetoric,’ more often than not, I get some polite blank looks followed by, “What is rhetoric?”

This is fair. So much has been lost in the educational world, and a classical Christian educator has an array of subjects that are unfamiliar to many people. If I have the time, I explain what rhetoric is in more depth. And if I don’t have the time, I usually have to give a very surface explanation: ‘it’s a speaking course’.

The above response is very, very far from all that rhetoric is, but often our students enter Rhetoric I and think that this is basically what they’re getting. Some know more about it, some less, but at least half my classes at the beginning of the year are terrified about a course that makes them speak every week.

In front of the entire class?

My mic and camera are both on?

I am being graded on my speaking voice?

What special torture is this?

Again, this response is fair and reasonably typical. While I love talking to people (see my job), it is not the favorite pastime for at least half the population, and I’m aware of this.

This is why I always spend the first few class periods talking a lot about the way humans work. I reassure my students that I’m aware humans are not all created the same way (shocking, but true). I usually get a poll of which students enjoy speaking publicly and which ones do not. And, of course, there are a few who are in the middle somewhere.

My kids need to know that they needn’t enter Rhetoric I as fully-fledged, confident speakers. The whole point of the class is to acquaint them with what rhetoric is and build them up with a great foundation for using it.

Thus, it is a great joy and delight to watch my students over the year as they grow and mature in their understanding and ability to wield rhetoric.

Naturally, there are students who are born with an innate ability to speak well. They often adore reading, have a great vocabulary and inborn confidence. I love helping them polish their thoughts and work on more effective persuasion. But I confess, my favorite thing is to observe students who were shy and internally terrified, pop up to give an impromptu speech as though they did one for breakfast every morning.

Because yes, I am that cruel.

Just as the students are getting somewhat used to the idea that they have to craft and deliver a speech each week, they are informed that they will also need to learn how to give impromptu speeches at various points in the year.

The reaction is sometimes comical—I can’t deny it—-world-ending angst and chatbox all caps of NO!!!!!

Yet, we talk a great deal in rhetoric about situations where one can find themselves having to defend an idea or person without preparation. In fact, much of everyday life is a series of impromptu speeches, but they don’t have to produce terror and stammering.

Many of our students will head off to college right after graduation, while others will go straight into the workforce. All of them will be faced with an increasingly hostile world for Christians. They will have a professor, classmate, colleague, or boss challenge their beliefs in various ways.

My students and I talk about this a lot. We discuss just why rhetoric is so critical for them to learn and why even impromptu speaking is a potent tool.

Because I know the world these students are headed for, I can’t properly express the delight I have when my timid students from Day One speak with power and confidence by Day Sixty-Four.

It’s not usually that they were terrible speakers at the beginning of the year—it’s usually that they really don’t like being in front of people. But if we approach rhetoric with the understanding that it’s imperative we use it well—think Gospel persuasion here—-then most students muster up their courage and really get to work on becoming good rhetors in every sense of the word. Young men and women who are able to think for themselves and express themselves with eloquence and persuasion.

To be honest, I get ridiculously proud of them. My greatest prayer is that they will go out into the world as Christ commanded and use their gifts and tools to bring it into subjection to Him.