takes something more than forgetfulness to cure stammering.

The belief held by both my parents and myself that I would outgrow
my difficulty was one of the gravest mistakes we ever made. Had I
followed the advice of others who believed in the outgrowing
theory it eventually would have caused me to become a confirmed
stammerer, entirely beyond hope of cure.

Today, as a result of twenty-eight years' daily contact with
stammerers, I know that stammering cannot be outgrown. The man who
suggests that it is possible to cure stammering by outgrowing it
is doing a great injustice to the stammerer, because he is giving
him a false hope--in fact the most futile hope that any stammerer
ever had. I wish I could paint in the sky, in letters of fire, the
truth that "Stammering cannot be outgrown," because this, of all
things, is the most frequent pitfall of the stammerer, his
greatest delusion and one of the most prolific causes of continued
suffering. I know whereof I speak, because I tried it myself. I
know how many different people held up to me the hope that I would
outgrow it.

My father offered me a valuable shotgun if I would stop
stammering. My mother offered me money, a watch and a horse and
buggy. These inducements made me strain every nerve to stop my
imperfect utterance, but all to no avail. At this time I knew
nothing of the underlying principles of speech and any effort
which I made to stop my stammering was merely a crude, misdirected
attempt which naturally had no chances for success.

I learned that prizes will never cure stammering. I found out too,