“I believe that the pursuit of truth and right ideas through honest debate and rigorous argument is a noble undertaking. ”
When adults are surveyed about the things that terrify them the most, public speaking tends to rank someplace between spiders and death. It’s no surprise that so many people are afraid to speak in public, after all, how many people actually practice? At Rhetorica, we know that the best way to create a new generation of communicators is to make debate and public speaking an exciting, interesting, and fun experience right from the start. Our programs are designed from the ground up by educators who are both experienced in debate and have experience working with the appropriate age groups. We blend fast paced speaking activities drawn from theater work and classical rhetoric training with puzzling logic problems, argument analysis, and plenty of exciting face to face debates on subjects relevant to our students. When we focus educational programs on recasting these skills as an exciting challenge, we encourage students to be comfortable thinking on their feet, willing to carefully listen to others, and able to articulate their own views with their full measure of passion.
for the classroom
Our debate classes include public forum, parliamentary, and mock trial, combining argumentation with creativity.
Learning to articulate and defend your position is one thing. Learning to forge a compromise that makes everyone happy is quite another.
These classes aim to cultivate public speaking skills and help students build confidence while participating in team entrepreneurship.
FOR TEACHERS
Debate formats can be helpful tools to teach a variety of subjects. If you’re a teacher looking to incorporate experiential debate formats into your classroom, we offer coaching and materials to help you apply debate to your subject area.