On June 21, the Houston Branch held the 7th edition of an online debate class to improve public speaking skills. After the weekly news quiz, students explored the topic of inequality in higher education. They looked at historical discrimination, the roots of inequality in K-12 systems, and participated in an interactive activity where they examined data on their own school district from ProPublica. Students also watched a video from the Atlantic examining the Varsity Blues scandal and discussed the repercussions of the event. In the debate section, students learned about the structure of the rebuttal speech, including the techniques of signposting and overviews to communicate with a judge. Finally, this week introduced a fun tradition: tongue twisters as a mental break!
