A Solution for Public Speaking in the High F School C. T. MAULLER, ROCKFORD, ILL. .....................÷OR several decades high schools have indulged in two kinds of literary contests, the debate and the oratorical contest. These contests may have their good qualities but they are greatly at fault for three reasons: they are not very practical, they do do not possess the best educational value, and they do not represent the true strength of competing schools. The following proposed contest has been suggested in part by the success of the extemporaneous speaking contests which were held in connection with the State University of Illinois last spring. The state was divided into five districts; any school within a prescribed district was at liberty to send a representative to a chosen town. About one half dozen schools responded from each district. The delegate-contestants competed by speaking on a subject from a list of thirty-three subjects which had been studied in part by the pupils before going to the contest. The winner of this preliminary contest went to the state contest which met at the University of Illinois. Many were pleased to note how successfully these contests were conducted. Why could not contests similar in principle, be as successfully conducted between two schools only, or between different groups of pupils of a single school? The following rules of order of the "Extemporaneous Speaking Contest" ought to supply the long-felt need. RULES OF THE EXTEMPORE CONTEST. The purpose of this form of contest is to promote extemporaneous speaking in the high school, believing: first, that it has an unusual practical value in that it deals with subjects of everyday interest to the high school pupil; second, that it has "academic value" in that it trains particularly "the powers of observation, comparison, and generalization"; and third, that it greatly de creases the possibility of coaching by instructors, thus making it strictly a contest of high school pupils. 1. Each team shall be composed of five members, one of which shall be a captain or leader. 2. To be a member of the team at the time of the contest a pupil must be passing in not less than four regular studies. II. The Speeches. 1. The subjects shall be drawn from the appended list one hour before the contest. The subjects shall be placed on separate cards and thrown into a hat; the contestants shall draw alternately between opposing teams, a contestant from the visiting team drawing first. 2. The speeches shall not be less than five minutes nor more than eight minutes in length. A tap by the chairman shall be given at the end of five minutes and at the end of eight if necessary. 3. The speeches shall be prepared in a room where all ten contestants are assembled. No previously prepared outlines shall be referred to. Fresh outlines may be made by any contestant during the one hour of preparation previous to the contest, but no speaker shall use manuscript or notes of any form during delivery of speech. Furthermore, no contestant shall receive help from a colleague, or any book, or person during the preparation just previous to the contest. The work of the speech must come from his own immediate knowledge of the subject. 4. The speeches for the boys shall be made from the following list of subjects: (1) Manual Training in the High School. (2) Football. (3) Literary Societies. (4) The Choice of a Profession. (5) The Suffrage Movement. (6) The Future of Aviation. (7) The Present Status of the Liquor Problem in the United States. (8) The Motion-Picture Show. (9) The Panama Canal. (10) Lessons of the Titanic Disaster. (11) Railway Accidents. (12) Civic Responsibility. (13) The Automobile. (14) Faults of American Civilization. (15) International Athletics. (16) Third Parties in American History. (20) Wireless Telegraphy. (21) The Advantages of City Life. (22) Inter High School Activities. (23) High School Instructors. (24) The World's Exposition. (25) A School Boy's Recreation. 5. This list shall be given to the contestants at the time when arrangements are first made to hold a contest. It is understood they shall do any amount of preparation on all the subjects in general before the one hour previous to the contest. 6. This list shall be revised from season to season in accordance with special agreement. III. The Order of Speakers. 1. The order of speakers shall be decided by lot by drawing. from ten cards on which shall be numbers from one to ten. The cards shall be mixed in a hat and drawn by the captains alternately, the first one to draw shall be the visiting captain. 2. The drawing for order of speeches shall be done before the drawing for subjects. 3. The captain may give his team-mates positions to speak as he chooses from the five numbers drawn. IV. The Judging of Contest. 1. The speeches shall be judged on organization of material, clear thinking, general presentation, and general effectiveness. 2. The contest shall be judged by three men who are not residents of either town represented or who are alumni or connected in any way with either school or any of the speakers. 3. If programs are furnished the judges, only the name. of the speaker and his subject shall be given. The judges shall not be told in any way from what school a speaker comes. 4. The judges shall render a separate grade for each contestant using 100% as the basis. 5. The school which has received the highest average per cent of all three judges shall have won the contest. V. Miscellaneous. 1. If any points of immediate importance arise relative to the contest in hand they shall be agreed upon by the chairman of the contest with the two captains. 2. The chairman of the contest shall be anyone agreeable to the visiting high school instructor and visiting captain. This contest is a little formal in nature but its virtues are many. It is not intended to ape athletics, although it resembles a basketball team, the number being five and one man acting as captain. However, the principles inherent in athletics if applied to literary contests will work fully as well. As in athletics, many men will respond, more will become interested. A keen competition for a place on the team is sure to result. In the old type of literary contest a debate team is chosen or the orator chosen and that ends it; the other men of the school have no chance, no one is left to coach them. Even in athletics the system of getting all men to take some form of physical culture is not ideal. The contest will cause even keener competition because there are no regular positions on the team; there are no regular set speeches to be committed and given. Any fellow will do his best if he feels that by hard work and practice by himself he can get a chance to represent the school. There is one man of the five who is termed the captain, but his work is little more than nominal; he simply manages the details at the hour of contest. It simply furnishes a student leader, gives him something to do, makes him feel responsibility, and causes him to inspire his fellows to study and preparation. It is not desired to scoff at all the good things about a debate, but it almost seems a sad thing that a debate team of only three men will work and study for weeks and months and then has the chance to appear only one evening against a single school. It is impossible to send a debate team against a second school, someone will learn the line of argument and all will be up. And even in this one debate if a debater gets sick the debate is called off the last moment because no substitute can be had. The Extemporane ous Contest solves these difficulties for a schedule can be made with a half dozen schools which can be "played off", as it were, just as a football team plays off its schedule with other schools. Of course this element of competition which is so common to athletics will run throughout the system, but there are other things that athletics cannot give, and that debates and orations cannot even give, that this contest can give. It is a decided step toward the practical. It will give the boy the thing he needs for practical life. He will always carry with him the "how" of talking and speaking before his fellows, the thing he needs in the thousand and one crises of business and political life. It will teach him the art of "public" speaking. It takes subjects, in the first place, that are near to him or at least within the possibility of his grasp. The formal debate speech is anything but practical, and the oration is only victrola-like. The day of "ornate" elocution is fast passing when a boy is trained in jumping-jack gestures to give a Fourth of July oration. These old types make machines out of boys; they fail to make them acting, living citizens. The Extemporaneous Contest, above all other forms of contest, has this one thing in its favor, it at least approaches the practical. This plan is not only intended for inter high school contests; it will also work as a stimulus for intra high school contests. It can be used by the literary societies, English instructors, and public speaking instructors. The literary societies can form teams and hold contests using the standard list of twenty-five subjects. The societies can carry on a series of contests for a championship team, and, if they desire, they can arrange for contests with outside organizations. At any rate it gives the societies something to do. Then the English teachers can cooperate in training boys and girls for contests, both intra and inter. Intra contests between certain classes of one English teacher or of two English teachers can easily be conducted. The pupils could be made to feel that by a little effort they would be recommended for an inter high school contest. The plan is unique for the smaller schools where there is no one teacher who is head of a public speaking department, and for larger schools where the English teachers can use it as a part of oral theme work to co-operate with the public speaking instructor. Thus the real element of competition is at work and for this reason the scheme may be said to have educational value. In larger schools where |