2 members of the New York Branch, Jason Xia and Larry Tao, taught winter speech debate workshops. From December 26 to 31, for 90 minutes a day, Jason taught 10 middle schoolers skills to create and respond to arguments in the context of public forum debate. From December 26 to 30, for 60 minutes a day, Larry taught 6 middle schoolers to speak persuasively in various forms of speech such as Dramatic Interpretation, Extemporaneous Speaking, and Original Oratory. This is important because skills like public speaking, research, and persuasion are becoming increasingly important, and debate and speech also provides a conduit for learning about current events.
In total, Jason taught 9 hours and Larry taught 5 hours.
