Teacher Uses 'King's Speech Method' To Help Student Overcome Stammer
[There was a video here]
This is about as heartwarming as it gets.
On the Channel 4 documentary series Educating Yorkshire, viewers were introduced to 16-year-old Musharaf "Mushy" Asghar — a Year 11 student preparing to take his GSCEs (British matriculation exams) and dreading the oral part of his English final, which accounts for 20% of the grade.
The reason for his reticence is that Mushy has an acute stammer which makes it impossible for him to speak in front of crowds.
Then along came Thornhill English teacher Mr. Burton with a crazy idea he picked up from watching The King's Speech: Have Mushy try speaking aloud while listening to music.
By the end of the school year, the therapy proved transformative, and in a powerful clip from the show's finale, Mushy delivers his exam to an assembly of 200 classmates, and nails it.
In a follow-up piece for the Guardian, Mushy says he hopes his success gives other people with stammer "the confidence to have a go at public speaking."
As for Mr. Burton's unorthodox technique, Mushy says he thought his teacher "was a genius until he lent me The King's Speech afterwards, and then I realised he just copied that other man."
Channel 4 provided this update on what the teen's been up to since filming concluded:
Musharaf is now studying A levels at the college of his choice, thanks in no small part to getting a C grade in English. He can't thank Mr Burton and all the staff at Thornhill enough for all that they've done for him and thinks that they 'really care'.
