Speech and Debate

These courses specialize in preparing students for public speaking and debate. Introductory speech courses are offered as part of the middle school elective rotation and both speech and debate are offered as upper school electives. Speech courses focus on the principles of communication and informative current event speeches, with students delivering several speeches during class. Debate focuses on preparing students for interscholastic competition in one of the two major forms of debate and teaches students the basic structure of policy and value style debate. Debate students participate in numerous debate tournaments at the local, state, regional, and national levels depending on qualifications.