My dictionary defines “oratory” as the art of speaking in public with style, cogency, and grace. In just four short weeks we will once again have a president that possesses high quality oratorical skills. Obama will make it cool to be an excellent public speaker. Candidate Obama’s speech on race in America, one of the best crafted, written, and delivered speeches I have been privileged to see and hear, was the equivalent to shooting a 35 foot jump shot with one second remaining on the game clock. And the shot got nothing but net…swish.
I believe we should seize the moment as educators, and use President-elect Obama’s public speaking skills as inspiration for the classrooms throughout Silicon Valley.
We practice rhetoric less today than we did when I was a student. Yet the skills needed to be an effective public speaker are some of the same skills students need to be successful in the world beyond classroom walls. Perhaps even more important today than when I was studying. These critical career skills include job interviewing, networking, winning people over with words, and dealing with difficult individuals.
One school district has stood out among the rest and deserves to be applauded for its annual Speech Tournament, in which each fourth- through eighth-grade student writes and delivers a speech. The students’ speeches are narrowed down in each grade level throughout the district for the finals event.
On Dec. 11, I was invited to be a judge during the 12th Annual Moreland School District Speech Tournament. Along with Mike Kotowski, a Campbell city council member, and community member Melissa Sudan, I listened to eight outstanding seventh-grade speeches, each lasting between three and four minutes.
The final competition was held in the multi-purpose room. The room was packed—standing room only—and it’s not the finals of a basketball tournament.
The thrust behind this inspiring venture is Brian Conroy, an exemplary person and teacher in Moreland. The model created by Conroy and Moreland can be adapted for all 32 other school districts in Santa Clara County.
Authentic communication skills, such as public speaking, can never be assessed on a fill-in-the-bubble exam like the California Standards Test. Schools must provide more opportunities for all students to engage in authentic performance-based tasks as this speech tournament.
I would like to hear your opinion.
Then US Senator Obama took some of the bloom off the speech on race he delivered on March 18, 2009, when the very next day he delivered himself of a Trent Lott-like observation that there was such a thing as “a typical white person.”
Usually that formula, “a typical X person” is a recipe for political or career disaster, but not for the man who will lead us for the next eight years. It’s too bad he set that example for young people, and still refuses to apologize for it or clean it up.
Funny, but for months I had proposed the best thing President-elect Obama could do to help this country and the black community that elected him is for him and Michelle to start a comprehensive “Speak like me” program targeted at grammar and middle school.
This would be an easy thing to do, much like his touted weekly YouTube addresses, but would have much more impact on our country. Invest an hour a week. Obama skip the gym, invest in this. They could show it in all the schools. Arne Duncan, Obama’s Sec. Of Education could assist in the effort, and develop the program. Language, grammar, diction, etc. Give the kids a role model, their President, that TEACHES them the lesson plan. This would inspire them. Gone would be the Ebonics, slang, throw around language that holds a majority of this generations blacks back from the jobs they really want or could perform.
As you have pointed out, to be an effective public speaker provides helps you in the real world. But you must also agree poor language and communication skills keep people trapped in lower socio-economic conditions which get passed off generation to generation.
President-elect Obama should implement the “speak like me” program as soon as possible. This would have immediate and measureable impacts.
Kudos and accolades to the speakers, but the reason the finals fill the multipurpose room at speech and debate tournaments is not that Speech and Debate has become a widely appreciated spectator sport.
The room was full with the non-finalist participants from a dozen or so schools. Every tournament has a full room at the finals because it is full of participants who are both interested and have nothing else to do that hour.
#2. Been around white kids lately? Even in places like Saratoga and Atherton the kids are trying to talk like gang bangers. It’s kind of funny, actually.
Joe’s comments are absolutely correct. Teaching verbal communication is important, and our new President will set a very good example. He can even pronounce “nuclear!”
Sometimes the old-fashioned solution may be the best. To develop public speaking skills, try joining Toastmasters. Search their website for local chapters.
Note: I’m not a member and I have no connection with them. I’ve just noticed the results produced by those who join.