November 11, 2007

Taft Upper Mid Bennett Siegel was awarded the prize for Best Novice Speaker at the annual Hotchkiss Parliamentary Debate Tournament on Sunday.

Yes, Sunday. Eight students--four 2-person teams (plus 3 observers)--gave up their sleep-in to travel to Lakeville. Nine schools participated in the tournament, including Andover, Deerfield, Choate, and Hotchkiss. Students debated extemporaneously for three rounds, choosing from three topics for each round.

Topics involved areas of current events like the legalization of selling bodily organs and the value of Wikipedia. Siegel received the highest scores from the judges for his three rounds, achieving a 90 average (out of 100).

Taft is a member of the Debate Association of Independent Schools, and the team looks forward to continued success in both debate and public speaking tournaments during the coming months. (The team is coached by English teacher Christopher Brown '64, a lawyer who joined the faculty this fall).