The National Christian Forensics and Communications Association Volume 54, Program 22 8/24/2004
Would you like to get your student started in formal debate? Chairman Michael Farris and Christy Shipe discuss how you can do that today on Home School Heartbeat.
Mike Farris:
In 1997, HSLDA started a national debate tournament specifically for homeschoolers. Today it's grown into the National Christian Forensics and Communications Association, or NCFCA. Today I'm joined by NCFCA's vice president, Christy Shipe, who also happens to be my daughter. Christy, what's the role of NCFCA today, and how can students become involved in it?
Christy Shipe:
Well, the primary role of NCFCA is to put on a national tournament every year where the top finishers in several different events for teen policy debate, Lincoln-Douglas value debate, and many individual speech events can come and compete at the national tournament after they qualify at regional and state tournaments throughout the country. And any information on these tournaments and how to get involved in NCFCA, how to join NCFCA, can be found on our website at http://www.ncfca.org. But also, just in general learning about debate, you can order two different textbooks from HSLDA to learn how to debate. We have an introductory text and then an advanced text that we've just published. And you can also join a local debate club in your area; you can find those clubs on the NCFCA website. So there's many opportunities throughout the country today to get involved in debate.
You can find out more about debate for homeschoolers by going to NCFCA's website. And don't forget to check out two informative resources at the link below. An Introduction to Argumentation and Debate and its sequel, Argumentation and Debate: Taking the Next Step, were written with novice and experienced debaters in mind.
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