Aside from theater, Katie’s other major extra-curricular activity so far is Speech. Not Speech and Debate – the team demonstrated a bit of debate, and she was thoroughly intimidated by it. She came home and said, "You know those big plastic tubs you put the toys in? They have those filled with notes and papers for their debates!"

Also, her school is the only school in this part of the state that does all three types of debate (Lincoln-Douglas and two others whose names I do not recall at this time), so they have to do a great deal of travel to meets.

So, Speech it is. Last week was her first meet, and she didn’t do as well as she’d hoped, and neither did any of the other novices. It was a good lesson though – the coasting, which was the Middle School Way, comes to an abrupt end when you discover that your inborn confidence and natural speaking facility only gets you so far – that you must actually prepare and practice  and (hardest of all) get help.

(And….I guess it paid off. She just this second called me to come pick her up and reported that she placed first. Better than  the 7th out of 8 of last week!)

This morning I dropped her off at another city high school for Meet #2 – she’s only competing in one category this week  – OI – which is a memorized speech – letting Prose rest until she can find a new piece which suits her more. They were all streaming in – young men and women all in the Speech and Debate uniform which is, of course, a suit. And oh, did they look sharp.

Now I’ve taught in schools with uniforms and know full well that any imagined transference of such sharpness to daily life just can’t happen with adolescents – shirts are pulled out of the dryer, still half damp, ties are worn like untightened nooses, shirts are chronically untucked and pant legs drag.

And of course, boho me doesn’t have a suit to my name, I’ll freely admit.

But still – it was quite a sight this morning.  happy, excited, nervous, purposeful young people heading in to joust with words.

In their suits!