When students talk to walls

by Dave DeMars

news@thenewsleaders.com

According to a survey in Psychology Today, having to give a speech is a major fear for most people. In fact, for some people it’s a fear worse than death. And yet, there are students at the local high school who brave the fear and even triumph over it.

The start of the speech season is upon us, said speech coach Joan Hauck, who along with fellow coaches Tad Hoeschen and Emily Peterson, will work with students. Soon students will be meeting once, twice, three times a week to hone and perfect their personal speaking skills. Many will practice at home in front of mirrors. Practice means not only memorizing the speech and the nuance of the piece, it also involves practicing a smile, a gesture, even the body attitude in many instances.

“We have about 20 or 25 kids participating,” Hauck said, “but I have to tell you, we are very small compared to some schools. In large city schools, we are talking teams of hundreds. It’s the most participated in activity in the (United States).”

Members of the speech team compete in 13 categories; Creative Expression, Discussion, Duo Interpretation, Extemporaneous Reading, Extemporaneous speaking, Great Speeches, Humorous Interpretation, Informative Speaking, Original Oratory, Serious Drama Interpretation, Serious Poetry Interpretation, Serious Prose Interpretation and Storytelling.

Hauck said she would love to have 40 participants but for a long time, speech had some sort of stigma about not being cool, but that attitude is changing as kids see it more often. Speech offers a variety of levels for competition, and it emphasizes the good things parents like to see in their kids.

“The students are the most respectful – we never have a problem, and we take over the entire high school when we have an invitational,” Hauck said. “And when they leave, the custodians say, ‘Besides them talking to walls, those are the nicest kids I’ve ever met.’”

Hauck said at just about any meet, prior to first round, students will be scattered throughout the school talking to a wall – getting the last bit of practice in before entering the competition room.

How it works

Any one of these categories is pressure-packed. At a meet called a “speech invitational,” each speaker will compete against individuals from another school or in some cases, many schools. Competitors may sit in the room and watch the competition along with other audience members and a judge. Often, because of the time when invitationals occur, competitors will provide the only audience. Sometimes, there is only the judge.

The judge scores each presented piece from one to six, looking for several different judging criteria depending on the category of the speech. Common elements judged include things such as voice (flexibility, intonation and volume); physical presence such as body language; and manner, which includes directness, self assurance and enthusiasm.

In categories such as original oratory, discussion and story telling, a competitor might also be judged on things such as structure and organization, achievement of purpose, interest, logic and originality of thought.

There is plenty to challenge one’s self confidence and assurance when making a presentation, and yet members of the speech team will prepare for hours, rehearse for days in order to challenge and wrestle with what (and for many of us in the population at large) is their worst fear – speaking in public before an audience.

Invitationals are often held on Saturday and will take the entire day.

“Often we are not back at school until 6 p.m. at night,” Hauck said.

For some categories, just having speaking talent is not enough. One needs to have skills in research and marshaling one’s arguments in order to be successful. Discussion is one of those categories.

“What it takes to become good at discussion is when you are in the practice room, doing a lot of research,” said coach Tad Hoeschen. “You have to know what the discussion topics are. During the season there are three times when topic selections are opened and changed.”

So preparing for discussion of one topic is not enough. A student must prepare for several topics through reading and research and honing discussion skills in order to present the strongest argument. And then they must learn to listen to the arguments of others while marshaling their own positions on the topic. The goal is to reach a consensus as to how to best approach a given controversial topic, such as the role of government and individual privacy.

“But it is not a debate,” Hoeschen said. “It’s really a presentation. To be a first-year competitor and do well is very difficult because it takes a long time to learn all the little nuances – how to be assured without being mean, and how to be nice without being too mellow and not say enough.”

Doing interpretation pieces is a bit easier, Hoeschen said, because competitors can focus solely on what they bring to the presentation of a piece. They do not have to concern themselves with what someone else is saying.

The value of speech

“Public speaking has never been my strong suit,” said junior Calista Barrett, a first-year speech student looking to compete in original oratory. “I guess this will help me strengthen that.”

One might wonder why any students would put themselves through the challenge of speech as opposed to, say, tennis or swimming or working on the student newspaper. Coach Hoeschen added another insight. He himself did many of the other activities in high school and college.

“I did choir and football and wrestling and tennis and speech,” Hoeschen said. “I did speech in high school and college and found far more value in being able to use the skills that we learn here – being able to overtly speak to people, doing a media interview or talking to a group of people – those are absolutely fantastic skills a lot of kids in this new generation don’t have.”

One of the other things that makes speech so valuable is colleges really like to see high-school students have attempted this activity – even if only for a year, Hauck said.

“I’ve watched students compete in other schools and other states,” said coach Emily Peterson, “and they are putting themselves willingly in a vulnerable position. I think that speaks volumes as to why this is so valuable. They get to practice and challenge themselves to do better each time they get up to speak. You have to be brave to do it.”