No “one size fits all” solutions

Posted on by WritingfromtheheartwithBrian

When I was a kid in elementary school, I would often slur my “r,” “s,” “th,” and “sh” sounds. These sounds require more precise tongue and mouth movements. Many times children haven’t been naturally exposed to these sounds and need to work to build them up.

I would get regularly pulled from class to spend time with a visiting speech therapist. The special one-on-one time with the speech expert makes sense now. For some reason, though, I hated the classes. I considered them a bummer. I did everything I could to get out of them.

Just give me the template!

I’m sure a big part of it was that I hated being called out from everyone else. My brothers never had to go to the classes. My friends didn’t have to go. The speech therapist caught on quickly to my tricks. When she started forcing my attendance, I begged her for the key to end my misery. I hated them that much. I wanted to know what was going to get me out of speech practice and back into my class?

I remember the speech therapist breaking my heart. There was no template. I was looking for the easy way out. Instead, I was going to have to find my own way. She explained it this way. I was unique. No one had the same tongue or mouth movements as me. No one had the same issues as me. I would have to work on my pronunciation. My success or failure was up to me.

Deja vu direction: break the rules!

The years have passed, but I could hear her voice and some of her advice when I got a sneak preview of Episode 112 of the Sharing the Heart of the Matter podcast that will be released this Friday, April 18. It features Vicki Atkinson and Wynne Leon interviewing Wall Street Journal best selling author Andrew Mayne.

Andrew knows a thing or two about breaking the rules and building his own template. He’s a novelist but has also been a magician and science communicator for OpenAI. In addition, he is a three-time Thriller Award finalist and an Edgar finalist for his novel Black Fall. He has a new thriller, Mr. Whisper, that was published in March. That’s not all. Andrew was featured in a Discovery Channel special where he used AI and stealth technology to swim with great white sharks.

In the podcast Andrew talks about being at a crossroads in his life. He had decided to give up on his career as a magician and leave Japan, returning to the U.S., and was searching for a blueprint.

You be you!

He offers such great advice for us creatives. There’s no template. We need to be truthful with ourselves. “For writers, it’s the same thing. The next Stephen King isn’t going to follow the same formula that Stephen King followed.”

In other words, Mayne has the same message that my speech therapist had oh so many years ago: There’s no one-sized-fits-all formula, you need to create it yourself.

Oh, how inspiring. Want to make sure you don’t miss this podcast? Subscribe now! Search for Sharing the Heart of the Matter on Spotify, Apple, Amazon Music or Pocketcasts. And subscribe to our YouTube channel for videos of our interviews and shorts.

26 thoughts on “No “one size fits all” solutions”

    1. Damn it Todd. You mean I have to take the long way around. Ugh. But, yes, I actually figured out in the end that I had to put in the hard work. I do that and I saw the rewards. Ha, ha. Yes, it’s a neat podcast. A fun interview by Vicki and Wynne with Andrew. They do a great job. Thanks for the kind comment.

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  3. Pingback: An elementary school injustice! – Writing from the Heart with Brian

  4. I remember a memoir written by a woman in France who said something like you should: “know the rules, fear the rules, break the rules.” The idea resonated with me, but I can’t tell the title of the book nor the author’s name.🫤

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  6. I love how you’ve connected these dots, Brian. It takes courage, but it’s also oh-so liberating to be who we are and discover our own magic. Trusting that it’s there. Thank you for this and for including the clip from our chat with Andrew. My brain is still on tilt-a-whirl mode thinking about all that he offered in one chat. 🥰

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  7. I can certainly relate to your speech issues, Brian. All three of my adult children had to go through their school’s speech therapy program for diverse pronunciation difficulties-three different templates. Mayne’s interview about how he found his own template will be an interesting podcast! 🙂

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  9. I’m looking forward to hearing this, what an interesting career he’s had! As for speech therapy, I remember some of my friends going through this, and when I became a teacher, I asked the speech teacher if she’d come in and work with the whole class sometimes, as a ‘special treat’ or work with my students in the room, and sometimes other kids would practice sounds with them, really was good for all of them, still developing. When they’d go in another room to work many asked to take a turn, so the idea was to make it a fun and exciting opportunity and a chance to get special attention from another teacher and it really seemed to be a positive when reframed this way. At least it felt that way.

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  10. Congrats on getting over your speech difficulties and recognizing the value of your speech therapist. Not everyone would have. Indeed, we want to be as anonymous as possible in some of our growing up years. My only advice is, don’t swim with sharks no matter what Andrew did. I wouldn’t want anyone calling me “Lefty!”

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  12. Your speech story is a very common one for children. Kids are like a lot of us—they want to fit in instead of fitting out. There was nothing worse than watching kids enjoying an activity in class only to be pulled out. Not only do they feel like they’re missing out, but it almost can feel like punishment.

    The same is true for almost all pullout programs besides speech. I’m not sure what the trend is these days, but near the end of the career, there was a movement towards push in instead of pull out. A skilled educator can read the room and find the way to either let the child stay that day or join him/her in the classroom.

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