Students learn to speak out in junior high

Students have been putting in a good word at Okotoks Junior High School for more than a quarter-of-a-century.

The school held its annual public speaking competition March 16. It’s an OJHS initiative, which got started in 1991, said language arts teacher Joanne Lafferty, one of the founders of the annual event.

“We were both language arts teachers and this allows us to celebrates academics,” said Lafferty, who co-founded the competition with former OJHS teacher Pam McDowell. “This allows students to shine in other areas of their lives — and public speaking can be a huge aspect of one’s life.”

Grade 9 student Grace Adams provided a persuasive speech on Thursday concerning the harm of being awarded a tiara for looking good.

“We have to try convince the audience of something and my topic was why beauty pageants are harmful,” said Adams who won the Grade 9 persuasive talk competition. “I did a lot of research for this, but I find the hard part is getting up and talking in front of everybody because there is a lot of pressure on you.

“When you are in the top three, people expect a lot out of you.”

Her argument was pageants create high standards and to much emphasis on girls and women’s beauty.

“I think overall the message they (pageants) put out is harmful to everybody,” Adams. The students listening to Adams knew public speaking wasn’t easy. The entire 675-student body partakes in the competition. They start off in individual classroom competitions, until they get whittled down to the top three for each grade. Those nine finalists from Grades 7-9, squared off in a speak-off Thursday. The Grade 9 students must persuade, while Grade 8s must inform. The students in the two upper grades write their own material, while the rookies in Grade 7 recite material.

Grade 7 winner Lane Chorney went for laughs.

“Mine was a story from the Revolting Rhymes by Roald Dahl, the Red Riding Hood and the Wolf,” Chorney said. “I was running out of options, all the good poems were taken and then Ms. King said: ‘Hey, I think I have some stories… It was kind of funny and had a dark twist, which I like. I want to make people laugh.”

Chorney was as nervous as Red Riding Hood walking in the scary woods as he stepped to the podium.

“I’m speaking a three-minute story and it sounded like it was a five-minute story — everyone is looking at you, your heart is beating and you can hear your breath,” Chorney said. “But once, I started talking, that all went away.”

Rhea Jones chose to write an informative talk in her Grade 8 winning speech on misinformation in rap.

“A lot of people disapprove of it because there is a lot of violence and profanity,” Jones said. “But at the same time it is a way for the rappers to express themselves… It was kind of appreciating the talent, because not everyone appreciates the talent of rap.”

She couldn’t wrap herself around the talk initially. She had to take a mulligan because her first draft was of the persuasive variety, not informative.

“I had to change a lot of things,” Jones said. “I had to tell just the basic facts of a topic.”