High School Speech class

[amlr]

What is the norm for speech class? Do the students in MA classes (i.e., Am Hist, Classical Studies, etc.) get enough practice doing class presentations that parents usually skip a separate speech class?

[momgineer]

My daughter recently took speech in college. She had to give four major speeches and a few tiny ones. So far my son who takes 5 MA classes a year and just finished his sophomore year has given 4 major presentations and one speech. Of the four types of speeches my daughter gave, the presentations my son did were very similar to her informational speech and the speech he gave was very similar to her persuasive speech.
I have no problem not having a specific speech class in high school since colleges require it anyway (unless MA can figure out a way to get dual credit for a speech class!) and the practice they get in high school, in my opinion, is as good as what my daughter did in college.
Now I know many high schools have a speech and debate class where they learn competitive speech and a class like that would probably be pretty valuable because from what I have seen, the speech skills they learn far exceed what my daughter had in college. I don’t think it is necessary though unless you are wanting to practice for a career that involves giving professional speeches. Just my opinion.
My experience with Memoria Academy has been they get plenty of chances to speak in front of the other students and give presentations. The speech my son have was a “political” speech (basically a persuasive speech) as a final in his Classical Rhetoric class. He spoke on the value of competing in triathlons. The presentations he gave ranged from 3-5 minutes and were in various history, classical, and literature classes.