They may not realize it, but speech students at Carson Valley Middle School are learning skills that will help them overcome what many people feel is one of life's major obstacles.
"They say people's No. 1 fear is speaking in front of others. Death is No. 7 on the list," said speech teacher Bob McCulley. "I tell the kids that you don't see a corporate executive who hasn't done some sort of forensic work. Shareholders are tough crowds."
Besides teaching the semester-long ninth-grade class, McCulley is also the speech and debate team coach at the middle school. The team participates in at least one tournament a month from September through April and will be competing in the Douglas High School Speech and Debate tournament today and Saturday.
McCulley said the Carson Valley Middle School team competes with 17 other schools in their league. Carson Valley and Pau-Wa-Lu are the only middle schools in the league.
"These students compete with the high schools," he said. "They had an extraordinary last tournament. They placed in some of the top spots in the district."
Amelia Ritger, 14, said she didn't take speech before ninth grade but won third-place for her humorous interpretation of "Cheerleading My Way to College" in the last tournament she attended.
"The advice the judges gave me was to be more preppy," said Amelia. "It's easier to do my presentation in front of people I don't know."
Danielle Lozano and Molly Ellery find it's easier to work as a team on duo interpretation of humorous pieces.
"But it's harder because you have to plan things out and you can't look at each other," said Molly. "As a team, we help each other out."
Elspeth Summersgill's policy topic is "Should the U.S. increase support of public health assistance in sub-Saharan Africa?"
"In policy, you have one topic all year long. You have to have evidence," said Elspeth.
She said doing research for her speech and debate topic makes her more aware of world events.
"You have to think about how to find evidence and you learn a lot," Elspeth said. "Before this class, I was nervous and scared of people but class has helped me get over it."
The middle school students train and are part of the Douglas Speech and Debate team.
"I'll take more debate next year at Douglas," said Elspeth. "The team's motto is 'talk hard, think fast and when in doubt, B.S.'"
