Speech and Debate Team
The Walt Whitman Speech and Debate Team was recognized as one of the top 5 in the nation by both the Catholic Forensics League and the National Forensics League in the spring of 2009. The nationally acclaimed team is composed of over 100 members and was coached by Anjan Choudhury, who announced his resignation from the team in 2010. Choudhury coached at the Hockaday School in Dallas, Texas for a short period before leaving to join another law firm in Los Angeles. Ari Parker has now taken the position of Head Coach, and has led the team to numerous championships including the New York City Invitational, Valley, in Des Moines, Iowa, Columbia Invitational, The Glenbrooks, in Illinois, Greenhill, in Texas, Blake, in Minneapolis, and the prestigious MBA Round Robin. The team has also appeared in the final round at tournaments such as Harvard, Emory, and the prestigious Tournament of Champions. As the largest National Forensics League speech and debate chapter in the state of Maryland, the team strives to set a local and national precedent of top quality in performance, establishing a legacy of merit and distinction. The team attends around 3 local tournaments a month, coupled with around 30 travel tournaments spread all across the country throughout the year. In the 2009 Catholic Forensics League National Championship, a Walt Whitman student team was the runner-up in three different forensics categories. In 2010, Walt Whitman broke historical records by qualifying more than 20 debaters to the prestigious Tournament of Champions.
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Famous quotes containing the words speech and, speech, debate and/or team:
“If we should swap a good library for a second-rate stump speech and not ask for boot, it would be thoroughly in tune with our hearts. For deep within each of us lies politics. It is our football, baseball, and tennis rolled into one. We enjoy it; we will hitch up and drive for miles in order to hear and applaud the vitriolic phrases of a candidate we have already reckoned we’ll vote against.”
—Federal Writers’ Project Of The Wor, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“If we would enjoy the most intimate society with that in each of us which is without, or above, being spoken to, we must not only be silent, but commonly so far apart bodily that we cannot possibly hear each other’s voice in any case. Referred to this standard, speech is for the convenience of those who are hard of hearing; but there are many fine things which we cannot say if we have to shout.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Like man and wife who nightly keep
Inconsequent debate in sleep
As they dream side by side.”
—Robert Graves (1895–1985)
“Relying on any one disciplinary approach—time-out, negotiation, tough love, the star system—puts the parenting team at risk. Why? Because children adapt to any method very quickly; today’s effective technique becomes tomorrow’s worn dance.”
—Ron Taffel (20th century)