When a Wisconsin public school handle controversy with class

A couple weeks ago, my Effective Speech class was given the assignment of delivering a persuasive speech. The objective of this speech was to persuade someone to change their look on subject or to make them see two sides to a story. Some chose to give speeches on why school year round is bad, or why one sports team is simply better than another.

Surprisingly some students chose controversial topics to speak about such as stances on pro-abortion and gay marriage. Because of this I decided to also speak on a controversial topic, wanting to show my insight and my stance on these topics. My initial intention was to speak out against abortion, but when someone else chose that topic, I decided to choose another.

The topic I chose to speak about was Anti-Gay Marriage. This was a something that many Christians have fought against ever since five of our fifty states passed laws that allowed two persons of the same-sex to get married. I felt that I should speak out about my stance on it because many of my classmates are in favor of gay marriage. I feel that as Christians and as Catholics in particular, we should be able to teach others about our faith not just by our words but also by our actions. Please feel free to read my speech below

continue at Writings of a Boy....   

This young man is also discerning a call to the priesthood.  Deo gratias! 

A comment from Anne @ Discerning

Maybe you'll be inspired by this speech my son gave at his public high school last month. One student swore at him and he was sent to the principal's office. The rest of the class gave him a standing ovation and the girl who was debating him told him that if they were in a real debate she would surely lose. He received an A+ on the speech.

The main point here is that there are always two sides to an issue and when you have immature faculty or administration, you train students to be the same way.  Maturity is required to hear both sides of an argument and come to a reasonable conclusion(without kicking and screaming on the floor).  The Shawano episode is a prime example of how in bad schools the state no longer teach students how to think, it just dictates their own creed to young minds.  Debate is nothing new, but the immaturity of faculty to be big boys and girls - maintain a respectful and fair venue - and handle it like adults, is an embarrassment to public education.  So it is important to remember that not all public school systems have this problem; many allow for fair debate on controversial issues(and don't punish students they disagree with).