AEA SPEECH & DEBATE CLUB

Description

Back in 1988, when our oldest child was not quite three years old, we asked the principal at our church's school what her thoughts were about homeschooling. She said, "Craig, when homeschooled children enroll with us, they're beyond our students in academics, but when we put on our plays, we can't get them to face the audience." That's when I determined that we would do whatever we could to train our children to be comfortable in public speaking. We were introduced to the world of homeschool speech and debate in 1999, and have been involved in this rewarding endeavor since that time. Even though all our children have all aged out, we're still leading an Orange County homeschool speech & debate club. Veritas is currently made up of more than twenty families who want their children to learn to speak persuasively and winsomely, and develop critical thinking skills. We know that the best way to motivate and produce strong speakers is through competition. And while it's nice to win trophies and medals - and our club has had its share of national champions - we know that each of our students can become a more effective and confident speaker even if they never make it to a final round at a tournament. Speaking of tournaments, Veritas has hosted and ran some of the largest homeschool speech and debate tournaments in the country. We are often in need of recruiting guest community judges - just like you - to come and judge at these exciting tournaments.