Welcome to Quo Vadis Speech & Debate Club!
Welcome to Quo Vadis Speech & Debate Club!
QV Mission Statement: Provide an opportunity for students to develop skills in public speaking and debate so that they can communicate effectively in a manner that glorifies God.
QV Leader: Jenni Honegger (jennihonegger@gmail.com)
If you have any questions about QV, please feel free to email me and ask!
INFORMATIONAL MEETING: Monday, July 1, 2024 at 7pm at Kossuth Street Baptist Church – Room 201, 2901 Kossuth St, Lafayette, IN 47904
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PLEASE READ THIS WEB PAGE ALL THE WAY TO THE END BEFORE REGISTERING!
Reading this information will help you decide if QV is a good fit for your family. Scroll back up and click the following link AFTER you’ve read the whole page. You will need to register each of your children separately.
Registration is open now through the mandatory orientation meeting on August 12, 2024.
Your oldest child must be at least 12 years old by 9/1/2024 to join.
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We will meet on Mondays from 1:00-5:00pm at Kossuth Street Baptist Church from August 19 - December 9, 2024 (no class on Labor Day and November 25).
Cost is $20/family payable at or before the mandatory orientation meeting on August 12, 2024. An additional $15/student fee will be due in approx. October 2024 when registering for the practice tournament.
Students can participate in either speech or debate or both.
| 1:00 - 1:20 pm | 1:20 - 2:50 pm | 2:50 - 3:00 pm | 3:00 - 4:00 pm | 4:00 - 5:00 pm | 5:00 - 6:00 pm | |
| Age 4 - 8 |
Worship, Apologetics Speeches, and Announcements |
Beginner Speech | Break | Gym | Board Games | |
| Age 9 - 11 | Worship, Apologetics Speeches, and Announcements | Junior Speech | Break | Gym | Board Games | |
| Age 12+ | Worship, Apologetics Speeches, and Announcements | Speech | Break | Debate or pre-debate | Debate or Board Games | Optional Apologetics Class |
Gym/board games for ages 4-11 - offered as parents are willing and available to help supervise.
Pre-debate will be offered for 12-13 year olds intimidated by the prospect of debate only if we have an available instructor.
Children under age 4 stay with their parent. A nursery room with toys is available for moms with their young children.
The optional apologetics class will be led by QV dad(s).
MANDATORY Requirements:
· At least one parent must be present at Kossuth with their students during club. This is not a drop-off activity. Students do well when their parent comes to club and learns along with them. Do not sign up if you cannot commit to attending as a parent.
· Weekly work outside of club meetings is expected and students agree to do their best to complete it to the best of their ability. We do not write speeches or do debate research during club time. Club time is used for practice and critiquing. If a student is not prepared, they will have nothing to contribute and it will be a waste of everyone’s time.
· Check your email faithfully. Email is the primary means of club communication.
· Orientation meeting Monday, August 12, 2024 at 7pm at Kossuth Street Baptist – Room 201. We will use this time to explain the club format and expectations so that everyone is on the same page when club meetings begin the following week.
· Practice tournament Saturday, December 7, 2024 at Kossuth Street Baptist. This is an all-day tournament running from 7:30am to 8pm which is organized and hosted by our club and includes other speech and debate clubs from around the Midwest. All QV students (except beginners age 4-8) are required to compete in this practice tournament. We also require the participation of one parent (both if at all possible) from each family on-site all day for this tournament.
Expectations & Philosophy:
· We are a Christian communicators’ club. All teaching will be with the goal of equipping effective communicators to speak in a godly manner, not just producing polished speakers. All members agree to abide by a Commitment to Biblical Conflict Resolution and agree not to contradict our Statement of Faith (see the end of this webpage for both documents).
· This is a club for families who are serious about developing effective communicators. This is NOT just a speech class. While you can give high school speech credit after your child completes our club season, you will be frustrated if you come into the club expecting a speech class. While some instruction will take place, the majority of the time students will be speaking, doing activities, or watching other speeches. Debate will be more of a traditional classroom setting through about half of the semester. About halfway through, weekly debates will begin.
· As a club, we are committed to traveling and competing as a team at an NCFCA (National Christian Forensics and Communications Association) tournament each year (dates and location TBD). NCFCA is a national Christian speech and debate league which offers several three-day tournaments each year for homeschooled students all over the Midwest, often with a special one-day add-on speech event for children younger than 12. These tournaments begin in January and run through April. Students must be members/affiliates of NCFCA to compete in these tournaments. Affiliation with NCFCA and registration for NCFCA tournaments have additional costs determined by the NCFCA and are separate from and in addition to the cost to join QV. Affiliation/membership in NCFCA and/or participation in NCFCA tournaments is not required for QV. However, as a club we encourage and support competition in NCFCA tournaments. Competition is not an end of itself, but it is a very effective tool to hone speaking and debate skills. There is nothing like being judged to encourage students to strive for excellence. Tournaments also are fun and students often make new friends at tournaments. Of course, whether a student competes at NCFCA tournaments must be for the parents to decide (other than our club’s practice tournament on December 7 which is required). We hope all QV families will join us for this fun and educational team event!
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SPEECH OPTIONS
BEGINNER SPEECH
(Offered as instructors are available.)
Ages 4 – 8: Provides a fun way for younger students to become comfortable speaking using games, weekly show and-tell, and other fun activities.
JUNIOR SPEECH
(Offered as instructors are available.)
Ages 9 – 11 - Focuses on becoming comfortable with short speeches. Students are taught about the basics of a well written speech. Students will prepare and give 2 speeches over the course of the club meetings. These speeches are not long or complicated, but they will require parental help at home and effort in memorization. Each student will receive class materials written just for this age group and just for QV.
SPEECH
Ages 12+ - Focuses on different types of public speaking. We will meet as a large group and discuss that week’s focus skill and watch examples. Then we will divide up into smaller groups of mixed ages for practice and critique. Students are expected to prepare and give multiples speeches over the course of the club meetings. The majority of the prep for these speeches will be done at home. At the weekly club meetings, if a student does not have a prepared speech they are ready to present to the group, they will be required to give an impromptu speech. Parents should come prepared to judge and give constructive critiques each week. The goal is to get the students speaking and practicing and receiving feedback every single week.
HERE is a link to the NCFCA page where you can see examples of the different types of speeches we practice in QV.
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DEBATE OPTIONS
PRE-DEBATE:
(Offered as instructors are available.)
· If your child is 12 or 13 and the idea of debate is overwhelming, then your child might benefit from joining this group. This fun group will stress learning logic and research skills and take part in light-hearted debates on subjects which students of this age will enjoy. This is a prep course for taking debate in the future and will do some joint activities with the older debaters to acquaint them with the world of competitive debate. The Pre-Debate group will use The Fallacy Detective by Hans Bluedorn. This book is required and can be purchased online for around $17.
· Short weekly research and prep is required.
TEAM POLICY DEBATE (TP):
· During a round of Team Policy Debate, a team of two debaters will advocate a resolution by proposing a specific plan to accomplish the goal stated in the resolution while another team of two debaters will oppose the topic. Public policy debate is about matters of public policy such as might be debated in a legislative setting or a community meeting. A winning debate team will clearly present a problem and provide a plan to solve this problem (or will clearly show that what their opponents presented isn't a significant problem or that their plan will not solve the problem). Everything in debate must be backed by reliable evidence. Definitions of terms are often important.
· For a few weeks at the beginning of the semester we will split up into two groups – novice debaters and more experienced debaters. During these weeks, the novice debaters will receive direct instruction in debate format and theory and will be helped to write a case so that they can begin debating in class very quickly. We have a goal of weekly debates being the standard and the students will learn by doing.
· Parents should come prepared to judge debates and give feedback.
· Often we will pair a novice with an experienced debater. Please don’t be hesitant to debate because you don’t know who your partner would be. People can pair up differently for different club debates and tournaments. There is a mandatory evidence-sharing ring for all policy debaters.
· Novice debaters should plan on spending at least 30 minutes a day to prepare for the weekly debates. More experienced debaters will probably spend 1 hour or more each day to research and prepare for debate.
· The current NCFCA Team Policy Debate Resolution (2024-2025): Coming soon
LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATE (LD):
(Offered as requested and/or as instructors are available.)
· Lincoln-Douglas debate resolutions are constructed to create a clash of competing values rather than the adoption of a specific policy. This is an individual (not a team) event. Instead of presenting and solving a specific problem, as is done in policy debate, LD debate deals with valuing one concept over another concept. A winning participant may present evidence but will define their value, present its major premises, and give justification to convince the judge that their value should be given precedence over the opponent's value.
· LD debate is generally best for debaters who have had at least 2 years of team policy debate and/or for older students age 16 and up.
· The current NCFCA Lincoln Douglas Resolution (2024-2025): Coming soon
· We recommend the following resource for LD: Lincoln-Douglas Debate by Seth Halvorson and Cherian Koshy at https://www.speechanddebate.org/wp-content/uploads/Lincoln-Douglas-Debate-Textbook.pdf This is a document online that may be legally printed for educational use.
NCFCA provides samples cases for Team Policy and Lincoln Douglas Value Debate in documents called source books. These materials can be downloaded after affiliating (purchasing a membership) in NCFCA. These are highly useful for novice debaters and give experienced debaters ideas for cases.
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Optional Tournament Prep Sessions
Some QV families desire to extend the regular QV season into the winter/spring in order to better prepare for NCFCA tournament competition. In an effort to meet this need, we offer optional “Tournament Prep Sessions” beginning January 6, 2025 after our regular QV season ends. Tournament Prep Sessions have a different format than our regular QV season. The focus will be on taking what we’ve learned at the practice tournament and building on it in a focused way to keep the momentum and motivation going into the NCFCA tournament season. Tournament Prep Sessions are optional and are at no extra charge. The format depends on which families are interested in participating and what their individual needs and goals are.
More info will be announced to QV members in the fall.
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Statement of Commitment to Biblical Conflict Resolution
While we don’t expect to be rife with conflict, we do know that because we are a group of sinners, there will inevitably be some conflict. It is imperative that we handle all communication in a way that will glorify God.
As people reconciled to God by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we believe that we are called to respond to conflict in a way that is remarkably different from the way the world deals with conflict.1 We also believe that conflict provides opportunities to glorify God, serve other people, and grow to be like Christ.2 Therefore, in response to God's love and in reliance on his grace, we commit ourselves to respond to conflict according to the following principles:
Glorify God — Instead of focusing on our own desires or dwelling on what others may do, we will rejoice in the Lord and bring him praise by depending on his forgiveness, wisdom, power, and love, as we seek to faithfully obey his commands and maintain a loving, merciful, and forgiving attitude.3
Get the Log out of Our Own Eye — Instead of blaming others for a conflict or resisting correction, we will trust in God's mercy and take responsibility for our own contribution to conflicts—confessing our sins to those we have wronged, asking God to help us change any attitudes and habits that lead to conflict, and seeking to repair any harm we have caused.4
Gently Restore — Instead of pretending that conflict doesn't exist or talking about others behind their backs, we will overlook minor offenses or we will talk personally and graciously with those whose offenses seem too serious to overlook, seeking to restore them rather than condemn them. When a conflict with a Christian brother or sister cannot be resolved in private, we will ask others in the body of Christ to help us settle the matter in a biblical manner.5
Go and Be Reconciled — Instead of accepting premature compromise or allowing relationships to wither, we will actively pursue genuine peace and reconciliation—forgiving others as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven us, and seeking just and mutually beneficial solutions to our differences.6
By God's grace, we will apply these principles as a matter of stewardship, realizing that conflict is an assignment, not an accident. We will remember that success in God's eyes is not a matter of specific results, but of faithful, dependent obedience. And we will pray that our service as peacemakers will bring praise to our Lord and lead others to know His infinite love.7
By registering for QV, you acknowledge that you have read the conflict resolution guidelines above and agree that your family will abide by these guidelines.
Footnotes:
Matt. 5:9; Luke 6:27-36; Gal. 5:19-26.
Rom. 8:28-29;1 Cor. 10:31-11:1; James 1:2-4.
Ps. 37:1-6; Mark 11:25; John 14:15; Rom. 12:17-21;1 Cor. 10:31; Phil. 4:2-9; Col. 3:1-4; James 3:17-18;4:1-3;1 Peter 2:12.
Prov. 28:13; Matt. 7:3-5; Luke 19:8; Col. 3:5-14;1 John 1:8-9.
Prov. 19:11; Matt. 18:15-20;1 Cor. 6:1-8; Gal. 6:1-2; Eph. 4:29; 2 Tim. 2:24-26; James 5:9.
Matt. 5:23-24; 6:12; 7:12; Eph. 4:1-3, 32; Phil. 2:3-4.
Matt. 25:14-21; John 13:34-35; Rom. 12:18; 1 Peter 2:19; 4:19.
Adapted from The Peacemaker: A Biblical Guide to Resolving Personal Conflict. © 1997, 2003 by Ken Sande. All Rights Reserved.
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Statement of Faith
The Bible, in the original autographs, is divinely inspired, infallible, inerrant, and authoritative in all matters of faith and conduct.
God has existed from all eternity in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
Jesus Christ was God coming in human flesh, being fully God and fully man, except without sin.
All men are in violation of God’s righteous requirements and His holy character by nature and act; and are therefore under His wrath and just condemnation.
The central purpose of the coming of Jesus Christ was to pay the penalty of man’s sin through His substitutionary death on the cross – the successful accomplishment of which was attested to by His subsequent visible, bodily resurrection from the dead.
Salvation is offered as a gift, free to the sinner.
This gift must be responded to in individual faith, not trusting in any personal works whatsoever but in the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ alone.
By registering for QV, you acknowledge that you have read the above Statement of Faith and agree not to contradict any of its tenets at any QV meeting or event.
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Congratulations, you made it to the end! If you have any questions, feel free to contact us.
If you are ready to register, the registration link is at the top of this webpage. We would love to welcome your family to the QV team!