Speaking has LOTS of different formats. See https://www.speechanddebate.org/competition-events/
If you know where your S is going to attend high school, start there. Many schools, especially smaller ones, compete in a limited number of events.
Stanford’s camp does have a generalized program for middle school students. If you just want to give him exposure to speech & debate it could be a good idea.
Jonri and all - thank you for your great suggestions!
Will getting involved in speaking competitions take as much time as debates?
If the school does not join any speaking competition but only debates. And if there are no speaking competitions in Cincinnati, can we join those of other states?
You have to start with the high school and find out what it does and how much of a commitment is required at that particular school. It really varies.
Seriously, don’t get ahead of yourself. Figure out where he’s going to high school. Find out if it offers speech and debate and, if so, which events the school participates in. Find out how much of a commitment is required.
He may want to do other things in high school and, if so, he’ll have some choices to make.
My S participated in both Speech and Debate at his HS. He really enjoyed both, but they were quite time-consuming activities. He had to get up most Saturday mornings very early to travel to tournaments (we lived in a somewhat rural area) but if you live in a more populated area, the travel might not take as long. At his school, speech was called “Forensics.” He ended up winning state and qualifying for two National tournaments in Speech in the Duo Interpretation category. He was also very involved in theater and music at his school. Many of the Speech categories use acting skills.
He didn’t get involved until his junior year, mainly because the coach had a reputation for being all-consuming and not allowing less than 100% commitment. He was also a 4-year varsity tennis player, and balancing tennis tournaments with Speech/Debate tournaments was tricky.
My S also participated in Speech & Debate for 4 years. He focused on International Extemporaneous Speaking, but also competed in all forms for Debate - Policy, Public Forum & Lincoln-Douglas throughout his HS years. I will second @college_query on the time commitment required for Debate & Speech. Most weekends between October through March were spent debating - leaving school early on Friday, getting home that night between 10:30-11:00 pm, then getting up back on a bus by 7:00 am the next morning and getting home late afternoon to evening on Saturday. we live in a large metropolitan area and he still spent a lot of time traveling to & from tournaments. My son loved debate and was very active member of his team spending hours each week preparing for tournaments and helping to coach novice debaters.
I am a huge supporter of debate & speech because it teaches important skills - public speaking, critical thinking, researching and seeing all sides of an argument. I encourage you to research what types of events your High School competes in and check to see if they require you to take a class before competing. One drawback is that unless your student likes Policy Debate, you can not continue on in college. However, my DS used his experience in debate to compete in Mock Trial at the collegiate level - earning a spot on his team as a Freshman. Also you could check out Model UN if your student likes politics in addition to speech/debate. Model UN does continue on into college.
I’m gong to jump in here with another perspective. I’ve had two D’s who have done speech & debate. The older one went “all in”, going to debate camps in the summer, qualifying for Nationals 3 times (twice in PF and once in Congress) and qualifying for Tournament of Champions, traveling out of state for tournaments, winning awards, etc. It was overall a positive experience and I believe helped her in college admissions too. She felt hampered by the fact that the team at her public high school was not well coached or supported. If she could do it over she actually would probably have chosen to enroll at local charter high school with a much more robust program because she feels she would’ve done even better in a stronger program.
My second D only did speech events and participated much more sporadically. Despite going to summer camp, she never “broke” and never made it to semi-finals much less finals. BUT it was still a worthwhile experience for her. She got constructive feedback on her public speaking. And equally importantly, she had an opportunity to give voice to various ideas and feelings she had strong opinions on. I acted as a volunteer judge at speech & debate tournaments for many years while my D’s were participating, and I remember one of the points that was repeatedly made to us judges by the tournament directors was that these tournaments are supposed to be fun, educational and beneficial for all the participants, not just the winners.
I have to disagree with one thing @sahmkc said
There are other forms of debate offered in college. There are 2 different parliamentary debate leagues, NPDA https://www.parlidebate.org/ and APDA.http://apda.online/ I think there is also a group of LACs in the Midwest that have a Lincoln -Douglas League. (At least there was one a few years ago.)
On my kid’s college parliamentary team the members had past experience with a wide variety of debate formats and extemporaneous speaking (both domestic and international)… Anyone can try out, though, and there have been years in which kids with other backgrounds in speech made the team.
When Ted Cruz says he was the national champion of college debate, he means he was APDA SOTY (Speaker of the Year.) The folks who did policy debate, which back then included at least 3 times as many colleges, just laugh.
Very helpful, thank you for sharing your personal experiences!
In Ohio, there is a camp run at Kenyon College every summer.
https://www.classicdebatecamp.com/camp-at-kenyon
There are some fairly successful Ohio high school coaches involved with it.
In Ohio, the competitions are generally run under OSDA (Ohio Speech and Debate). I am seeing the following schools from the Cincinnati and Dayton area being members:
Archbishop Moeller High School
Beavercreek High School
Centerville High School
Colerain High School
Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy
Loveland High School
Mason High School
Miami Valley School
Middletown High School
Monroe High School
Oak Hills High School
Oakwood High School
Piqua High School
Princeton High School
Walnut Hills High School
Yellow Springs High School
Is your son headed to one of these schools? I do have to say that even within these schools, there is a variation in how active they are.
You can check more details from theosda.org
Incidently, I am 4 year parent of speech and debate now … my son just finished his 4 year journey ending 3rd in States last weekend in student congress. I had to commit a lot of time (and obviously he had to do a lot more!) but I have seen tremendous growth in him. He did student congress, and while time consuming, I feel the skills gained are very transferable to many settings later in life (quickly researching a topic, developing arguments, oratory skills, thinking on the fly in the chamber, and others).
To add regarding the UMich and MSU debate institutes, I’m pretty sure they serve both novices and experienced/advanced debaters. They’d all have the same topic but the emphasis in training would differ.
Osuprof, congratulations, so proud of your son! Thank you for your very helpful post. Unfortunately, my son’s school is not in this list, makes me wonder if we should transfer. I called his school today and talked to the assistant principal, she is not familiar with what speech or debate competitions they do. I am writing another staff to check more details today. I agree that the skills learned are good for life!
What is the best and easiest way to find out which among the schools in my area (any area) are performing the best in speech or debate competitions? Do I have to go to the individual event website to find out? Or any other way?
I think the most important factor is the style of the team, not just the record. Some teams have the adult coaches and the seniors write the cases, and the younger members of the team basically just debate cases written by others. Other teams have debaters do much more of their own prep, with some sharing but not wholesale gifting of cards and cases. I prefer the latter, even though they might lose more, because they learn more about how to research, how to think critically, and, how to construct an argument. As a frequent judge, I have witnessed many times young freshman and sophomore debaters who clearly are spewing information that they do not even remotely understand. They might technically win the debate, but as thinkers and students, I don’t think they are gaining much. In the long run, when they are juniors and seniors, they are usually not better debaters than those kids who had to learn to do it for themselves all along.
@ccprofandmomof2 You surprise me. On our school’s team everybody writes their own case start to finish, and I didn’t know it could be otherwise. That may be why they don’t win much, but it improved my son’s reasoning, information gathering and and especially speaking skills immensely.
I don’t how to find out the most successful teams in your area without asking the various schools’ coaches. You could try contacting the National Speech and Debate Organization. I agree though that success is not the most important quality; I’d look for a team that competes in many different speech and debate events and equally accepts the students who are novices and those who want to travel out of state every weekend to tournaments. As a parent of a senior who falls into the latter category, I can tell you it is extremely time-consuming and can be expensive. The students have to be very focused to get their homework done while at the airport or waiting for another round to begin. The season begins in September and ends in March . . . unless you qualify for Nationals, which is in June. All that negativity aside, it is a fantastic EC that teaches skills that are used in every job and I highly recommend it!
I agree with the previous posters that the style of the team is more important than the success of the overall team. DS was a policy debater competing in national circuit. We were a small no-name school with small speech/debate team. It’s possible to be successful. Debate camp over the summer was very very helpful. That said, if you want to find out which teams are sucessful in your area you could look at the results of the National debate championships (Tournament of the Champions (TOC), NSDA, NDCA). You can also look up the result of State championship as well.
DH did speech and debate at one of the big high schools known for its program. He did extemp, Congress, and policy. Quit policy because it involved a lot more prep than he was willing to put in. He uses those skills every day and the coach was the father he desperately needed at that time. The coach was known for buying suits and ties and plane fare for kids who could not participate otherwise. Forty years later, we still support the team.
My niece did policy all through high school and at her college. Was very good at it and went to states and a few invitationals.
Some schools run programs that involve a lot of travel. DH went out of town on a regular basis. My niece competed locally for the most part (Atlanta), but occasionally went out of town.
S2’s high school only did Lincoln-Douglas. It suited him well and the football team was perplexed when he’d miss practice for debates. The local high schools held competitions after school, and only among other schools in our system.
I’d encourage your son to learn about the various categories and see what areas interest him. In many programs, students can try out a couple of things to see what fits, though it’s a bit harder to do that if you’re doing policy, as that tends to be all-consuming.
DH and I both did Model UN in college, which is how we met!
Thank you for all of your great advice! Much appreciated!