On Sunday, Feb. 1, KO hosted a public speaking event with two competing members of Forensic Union and 11 other schools.
Forensic Union advisor and Spanish teacher Carolina Croes was joined by multiple volunteers from Forensic Union, not to compete but to help out with running around and making sure the day ran smoothly. Ms. Croes was especially grateful for the opportunity to be in both Seaverns and the new Community Commons to host the other schools.
Some schools included in the competition were: Loomis Chaffee School, Stoneleigh Burnham, Northfield Mount Hermon, and St. Sebastian’s.
There were three events throughout the day, with choice in the first two. The first events was a choice between persuasive speaking or an after-dinner speech. The after-dinner was meant to be a prepared speech that the speakers would deliver in front of judges and a few other people in their room, attempting to fill their allotted time.
The persuasive speech is meant to persuade the audience, and senior Gordon Beck chose to talk about how the New York Giants are going to be a contender for the Super Bowl next year. The after-dinner speech is meant to entertain the audience, not stand-up comedy, but still entertaining. Senior Sam Almeida chose to make up a funny situation about a failed Disney princess. Although neither Sam or Gordon won an award for their speeches, they were still proud of their speeches.
The second event consisted of impromptu speaking or ethical dilemma speaking. Gordon mentioned this was a little harder but was one of his favorite parts of the day. These topics were difficult because speakers had only 10 minutes to prepare.
Gordon competed in the ethical dilemma category. The dilemma the speakers were faced with was that a student forgot to do his math homework, which was 30% of his grade. He could either take the zero on the assignment or copy off his friend’s work. Gordon decided he should copy off the kid’s homework, using a specific strategy to win over the judges. “I also talked about the net weights, when a lot of the time you want to use utilitarianism,” he said, “where the losses are maybe guilt, and that’s really all you lose, versus he gains a lot more in the long run.”
Gordon ended up getting first for his strong speaking and superfluity, winning a placard for his achievement.
The third event was interpretive reading. Gordon compared it to KO’s Speakers’ Forum that sophomores compete in every year. Neither Sam nor Gordon won an award for their readings; however, that does not take away from their hard work.
Ms. Croes mentioned that the day did feature some problems. Prior to the competition, the Google Sheet they were going to use had some technical difficulties. “It had become corrupted from too many copies,” Ms. Croes said. But, with help from math teacher Hayley Ganslaw, they were able to build a new planning sheet.
Another problem happened on the day of the competition. Two schools ended up not showing up due to illnesses, but Ms. Croes was ready for that since it was February.
Although there were some problems and there were only two KO competitors, Ms. Croes said the day went smoothly, and it was very successful, especially with the help of the other Forensic Union volunteers who do not enjoy the public speaking competitions. “The public speaking competitions are not very popular with our Forensic Union members,” Ms. Croes said. “They tend to prefer to debate.”
Junior Ida Chapman was one of the volunteers, and she agreed with Ms. Croes that the day was successful. “It was definitely a successful day, and everything went smoothly from our end,” Ida said. “I think people had fun at the tournament.”
