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A contest for those with gift of gab

Debaters flaunt talent at championships

By: Alexandra Paul

Posted: 02/7/2011 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

Aislin Flynn, left, from Halifax, and St. John’s Ravenscourt School’s Sarah Levy are competing in the National Public Speaking Championships.

Sarah Levy has a nerve-racking day ahead of her.

But if any 17-year-old knows how to keep her cool under pressure, it's the debating whiz from St. John's Ravenscourt School.

Over the weekend, Levy won the right to compete in all four finals today at the National Public Speaking Championships.

She's among 48 high school students from across Canada competing at her home school.

The seven still standing when the nationals wrap up today will fly to Brisbane, Australia, in April for the 2011 World Individual Debating and Public Speaking Championships.

"In an age of increasingly casual and informal communications delivery, these championships encourage young people to aim for the highest traditional public speaking and debating skills -- developing lifelong abilities in logical reasoning and personal expression," proud organizers said in a promotional statement for the event.

Two savvy debaters who talked about their dreams at a lunch break Sunday said their debating days will probably make their futures brighter.

"I might want to go into theatre and it will help me, with my confidence, in being persuasive and in commanding attention," said Aislin Flynn, 17, from Sacred Heart School in Halifax. "Public speaking lends itself to theatre."

Levy said this is the third year in a row she's competed at this level.

The art of public speaking is reaping dividends for the St. John's Ravenscourt debater: She's already travelled to Scotland, Qatar and Germany, as well as Toronto and Calgary, on the skill of her silver tongue.

With ambitions to go into law, arguments and speeches will stand her in good stead in the courtroom.

Twelve of the debaters are from schools in Winnipeg, including St John's-Ravenscourt, St Mary's Academy, Grant Park High School and Balmoral Hall School.

John Robinson is a man with a silver beard and a soft voice who looks every bit the eminence grise that he is.

The top debating coach at Ravenscourt can remember students from the past 25 years who've gone on to success as doctors and businessmen. Not many became politicians, Robinson observes. The most famous is Hollywood agent Michael Kives, former aide to Bill Clinton after he left the White House and a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton, now secretary of state under American President Barack Obama.

Every champion from Winnipeg is a source of satisfaction.

"We win it most of the time, probably 90 per cent of the time," Robinson said of the national high school debating event.

At one time, most schools taught public speaking, but now the art is a holdover promoted at private and religious schools and a handful of public schools.

That staggers Robinson.

"Half of your communication with people in the world will be oral, not written, yet we don't do an awful lot to prepare students for it. The key is to do it, get feedback and do it again. You learn public speaking by doing it just the same as you learn writing by doing it."

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 7, 2011 A5

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