WELCOME TO OUR

PARENTS' CORNER

 

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

1. How Long Do Tournaments Last?

The Calendar of Events on the TCFL website lists APPROXIMATE beginning and ending times of the tournaments. Additionally, your child should have a flyer.

 

2.  Why Do They Last So Long?

With so many students competing in the various events, they must give their speeches around three times in one tournament. With one round having seven students each give a 10 minute speech, each round takes almost two hours to run. You must also factor in the judges' room figuring the ranks and paneling the rounds. Finally, a tournament must run an awards ceremony (which is open to all parents to come and watch) to announce the top competitors of each event and pass out all the trophies and certificates. Every effort is made to run the tournaments as quickly as possible and the team does NOT go out to eat together after tournaments and our overnight trips do NOT include trips to amusement parks or other non-speech events. Trust us, Ms. Graber does not want to be at tournaments any longer than we have to. 

 

3.  How Do Students Get To Tournaments?

For tournaments , students will need to get a ride from a parent. Students drivers can NOT drive other students or themselves. For tournaments out of the area, we will generally organize transportation to and from the tournament.

 

4.  Why Doesn’t My Kid Win More Trophies?

Each tournament might hand out anywhere between 2 and 10 trophies in each of the events. Our team alone has between 15 and 35 students. If you add our numbers with those of the many other schools that compete in these tournaments, you will see that there just aren't enough trophies to go around. In any given event, there will be students who have done speech for four years and have given thousands of speeches competing against first year competitors. It’s a tough mountain to climb. Success isn’t measured in the trophies, its measured in the progress that each individual student makes. Your kids are gaining more experience and knowledge at each meet that would never be able to fit inside of some trophy. The trophies end up in a box in the attic or garage, but the experience gained from Speech and Debate will last a lifetime.