Ok so poking around and procrastinating, I learned that the person placed in charge of publishing the Constitutional Convention of 1787 debate transcripts was John Quincy Adams. Mr. Rhetoric himself from the 19th century was ordered to edit and publish them in 1818. This guy really loved words. I wonder if I could teach a class just on him and all the stuff he wrote, plus his pretty clever (and incredible) speeches about abolition on the floor of the House. I bet I could design that course and teach it.

These days, I’m thinking a lot more about preparing and teaching courses as online packages. There are so many essays out there about passive income and ways to develop helpful courses for people on different topics and charge them some amount of money to take the course. It’s not for credit; I don’t think any of them really offer any sort of accreditation for completing the course. It’s more like self-help or self-improvement kind of stuff.

I am pretty sure I could put together a decent public speaking course, but I think it would be lost in the noise. I think I’ll put together something like “transformational oratory” or something instead to capture people who don’t just want to speak in corporate boardrooms, but maybe want to influence people in many different situations. Most public speaking stuff assumes a work environment, which is pretty pathetic.

Oratory has been lost in this exchange. Maybe Adams’s return isn’t just an accidental find. Maybe it’s time to bring him to the foreground again and really think about what public speaking and oratory can be.