When Susan Greenstein Prescott was a high school senior, her English teacher, Fred DeMayo, gave her a terrifying assignment: recite a poem in front of the whole class.
"I had a mild stutter. I'd be trying to get a word out that might begin with [the letter] 'd' or a 'th' — and the word wouldn't come out, or I might say 'the' three times," Greenstein Prescott said.
The thought of getting up in front of her peers and stuttering through the poem was too much to bear. Greenstein Prescott went home and revealed how scared she was to her mom, who agreed to write a note asking for her to be excused from doing the assignment in front of the whole class.
When the day of the assignment came, Greenstein Prescott recited the poem one-on-one for Mr. DeMayo. Once she was done, he said something she'd never heard before: that he liked listening to her voice. For the first time, she considered the possibility that public speaking didn't have to be a source of dread.
"I think in his mind it was so minor and he wanted me to understand I have nothing to be afraid of."
Greenstein Prescott went on to graduate from high school and go to college. Some years later, she landed a job as a corporate trainer. The new position made her realize how big an impact he had had on her confidence.
"I stand up in front of people and I speak. And I do it all the time. And if I do stutter once in a while — big whoop."
In 2023, she found a way to contact her former teacher, and he wrote a letter back, expressing his gratitude.
"He truly is an unsung hero," Greenstein Prescott said.
"I don't know where I would've gone if I felt like I had to keep my voice quiet because I was afraid of embarrassing myself."
My Unsung Hero is also a podcast — new episodes are released every Tuesday. To share the story of your unsung hero with the Hidden Brain team, record a voice memo on your phone and send it to myunsunghero@hiddenbrain.org.
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