I (Cheryl) am a bit embarrassed to admit this but I have to be honest…I had never heard of the term glossophobia before until recently. My oldest son and I walked into Mission College Prep High School a few weeks back for an Invitational Speech Tournament and as he checked himself in, they encouraged him to take one of these glossophobia buttons to wear. Little did I know that the anxiety that I (and a lot of other people!) feel when speaking in front of large groups had a name! Misson’s goal that weekend was to encourage the middle school students in our area to take a risk, stretch themselves, and succeed in delivering a speech. I am very proud to say that our SLOCA students (Kate Joukovski, Max Joukovski, Miles Kennedy, Brooke Lamkin, Aidan McCabe, and Isobel Ridley) did a tremendous job on being bold and confident, some conquering their fears and many of them coming home with medals!
We wholeheartedly believe that SLOCA’s intentional exercise of recitations in the classrooms and purposeful Friday Academy Clubs, like Debate, played a huge role in the success of that weekend. We invite you to welcome Laura Joukovski, SLOCA’s current Debate Coach, as she shares more about this club and what’s to come.
I started the Debate Club at SLOCA in the 2017-2018 school year and we continued this year. We meet on Friday afternoons as part of SLOCA’s Friday Academy Clubs & Classes. Though I do not have formal debate training, I do care a lot about developing students’ public speaking skills and believe that the act of forming and articulating logical arguments is incredibly powerful in real life. So, I wanted to create an opportunity for my own kids to practice these skills with their peers in a fun environment. I set about studying the various debate formats and preparing for the Friday classes. SLOCA joined the National Speech and Debate Association, where I found lots of great resources for class curriculum, and we got started!
One of the core components of Speech & Debate programs, in general, is participation in tournaments. Unfortunately, there’s not been much activity in our area. So, in our first year, we practiced together weekly and would put on our own intra-class tournaments at the close of each trimester… just for fun. As we entered into our second year this school year, we contemplated traveling to participate in tournaments (there are options in Bay Area or Los Angeles). We never took the plunge for travel tournaments, but we were able to engage with the first-ever Speech Tournament for middle school students in SLO on April 13th at Mission High School. It was truly lovely and amazing. Many local schools participated. SLOCA shined bright! We had 6 SLOCA students participate across a variety of events, including persuasive speech, dramatic interpretation, original poetry & prose, and impromptu. SLOCA brought home a plaque and many students won ribbons for their events. I could not stop smiling all day long. It was such an immense honor to be in the presence of brave and talented kids who were practicing public speaking and so many volunteers, educators and parents who support them in this pursuit.
So, what happens next?
Mission High School is committed to doing the event again next year. And we now have the names of folks from a variety of local schools who chose to participate. We could help to foster an ecosystem that could create more of these opportunities for our students. Perhaps SLOCA could also host such an event. It might be a great outreach opportunity to showcase SLOCA to prospective families. We need someone from SLOCA to carry the torch! My family will be leaving SLOCA at the end of this school year, as my daughter enters Stanford Online High School. She’ll likely participate in Speech & Debate Club there, with a well-developed club led by a professional debater. So, my days of playing debate coach are near to the end. I’ve loved every minute of it. And if I could do it, so could you! If there is a parent or teacher out there who shares this passion and would like to consider leading a debate club at SLOCA next school year, please do reach out to me. (Laura Joukovski — I’m in the directory). I would be thoroughly delighted to share resources to get you started on your own journey.
And to all of the families who participated in Debate Club last year and this year — you are awesome. Your kids are curious, courageous and — often — hilarious!
I hope that we’ve started something at SLOCA that will outlast us.
Thank you so much, Laura, for your leadership! It has been so WONDERful to watch the students work hard, grow in their skill and gain confidence these last couple of years.
