In an era when young people are more likely to tweet, post or text, a group of area students on Saturday put their skills of persuasion, rhetoric and polemics to the test.
Abington Heights High School hosted the second annual Comet Classic Speech Debate Tournament, drawing 16 schools and more than 200 students.
Students dressed in business attire, even carrying folders and briefcases, scurried from room to room through much of the day, facing off with peers from other schools.
Taillon Staudenmeier, a student at Meyers High School in Wilkes-Barre, was fresh from competing in the "Lincoln-Douglas" category, which required him to draw upon the work of philosophers and great thinkers to argue in favor of universal health care.
He liked the fact that the competition has several rounds, so if he lags in one area, he may be able to pick up in another. Later in the day, he would argue the opposite position - that universal health care is not a good idea.
Other debates Saturday were about U.S. foreign policy or issues of morality. The position argued and the topic are less important than the effectiveness of the speech.
Abington Heights forensics team adviser and competition organizer Sarah Scranta said the school wanted to host the event to give local students access to a quality competition close to home. Still, the event drew schools from as far away as suburban Philadelphia and State College.
The Abington Heights speech and debate team has about 40 members.
Ricky Guiton, now a freshman at West Chester University, served as a judge. As a student at Elk Lake High School, he finished fourth nationally in speech and debate and is something of a legend to budding debaters.
He said the experience gave him public speaking and analytical skills. The research required by speech and debate made it easier for him to plow through otherwise boring textbooks and journals.
The skills learned on the forensics team will help in real life, said Abington Heights sophomore Alex Fried.
"In any job, you have to be able to communicate effectively," Alex said. "You can't tweet or text a persuasive presentation to your colleagues."
Contact the writer: dfalchek@timesshamrock.com