Was attending a session on effective teaching the other day (don't ask - god knows what the university will think up next), where the instructor informed us that it was no longer appropriate to use the term 'stage fright'. Apparently some wag pointed out that it wasn't technically stage fright if you were applying it to classrooms / meeting rooms. The de rigueur term to use, apparently, is 'performance anxiety'.This may be more literally accurate, but personally I think it's a change for the worse. Stage fright was something you could unashamedly admit to - and be sure of receiving almost universal sympathy. But let word that you suffer from performance anxiety start spreading, and where are you? Probably back home practising next day's lecture in front of a mirror because you're never, ever, going to get a date again.
Also, does anyone else see the irony in getting anxious about what you call a particular type of anxiety?
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