Graphic by Carolyn Chen ’25/The Choate News
Choate students are presented with many public speaking opportunities throughout their high school careers: the Krause-Stevens Declamation Contest, the Goodyear Presentations in World History, and the Pratt-Packard Declamation Contest. As each speech is presented, five criteria circle the judges’ minds: stance, projection, articulation, tone, and eye contact (SPATE). This acronym was coined by the late Mr. Zach Goodyear, a former HPRSS faculty member who had a keen eye for the components of a successful speech.
Mr. Goodyear was the torchbearer of Choate’s public speaking tradition — one that started even before the establishment of Choate Rosemary Hall. Political figures like John F. Kennedy ’35 and Adlai Stevenson ’18 gained their early experience in public speaking from a course at The Choate School introduced in the 1920s. Similarly, students of Rosemary Hall were required to recite hundreds of lines of prose before being dismissed for spring vacation.
As the two schools merged, Mr. E. Stanley Pratt and Mr. H. Jeremy Packard ’55, both beloved deans and notable members of the HPRSS department, preserved the public speaking traditions. In the late 1970s, Mr. Packard introduced public speaking as a required unit for all third-form students.
Mr. Charles Krause ’51, another important contributor to public speaking at Choate, funded the monetary prizes for the Pratt-Packard Declamation Contest in 2000. He was the captain of Choate’s Debate council and later established the fund to “encourage and train young people to speak in public with clarity of thought, confidence, and enthusiasm and to use this talent throughout their lives.”
Currently, English Teacher Mr. John Cobb helps extend the legacy of public speaking at Choate. He considers it “a 21st-century skill that everyone’s going to need.” According to Forbes Magazine, roughly 80 percent of humankind experiences levels of anxiety before speaking in front of an audience. Mr. Cobb believes that Choate’s public speaking contests provide inspiration and encouragement for students to overcome their apprehension and give public speaking a try.
“You can have the opportunity, which is, I think, a privilege to speak in front of the whole school and say whatever you really want,” said Mr. Cobb. “One of the things I always take away from the public speaking contests is, boy, Choaties are pretty good. These are some talented people.”
In part thanks to her parents’ jobs as TV reporters, Emma Hermacinski ’22 is one of Choate’s successful public speakers. She is both the vice-captain of the Choate Debate Team and recent champion of the Impromptu Speaking at the World Independent Debating and Public Speaking Championships (WIPDSC). Her experience with public speaking at Choate began in freshman year from frequenting several debate pods. “I completely sucked at public speaking when I started out,” she said. Referring to the pod leaders, she recounted, “They were like, ‘Okay, you only have to speak for five minutes on this really, really broad topic.’ And I got up there, gave 90 seconds of gibberish, and I sat right down … I really did come from nothing.”
Melody Qian ’24, one of the four Goodyear Speech Contest finalists this year, is another student largely involved in public speaking at Choate. An avid member of the Choate Debate Team and competitions outside of school, Qian greatly values the emphasis Choate places on public speaking. “Like it or not, you’re going to need to do public speaking at some point in the future. Whether it’s in an office or at a wedding party, if you’ve taught yourself how to appear confident when you’re speaking, it will save you in a lot of situations,” she said.
One of Qian’s favorite classes was the public speaking elective she took with Mr. Cobb during her freshman year. She said, “He taught me how to be an impactful speaker to audiences outside of debate, which comes with a different style of speaking that can be faster and more aggressive than most speeches.” Qian believes that the HPRSS department’s incorporation of graded discussions and oral presentations in the course curriculum has provided more opportunities for her to perfect her public speaking techniques both inside and outside of the classroom setting.
The significance that public speaking holds at Choate has encouraged many students from different forms, with vastly varying levels of experience, to engage and participate in opportunities to grow as a speaker. Gavin Boudreau ’24 described the Pratt-Packard Declamation Contest and Goodyear Presentations as both “inspirational and empowering.”
“Knowing that others just like us, who literally attend the same school, have the experiences that they’ve had and have been able to express those in the way they have — it’s priceless,” said Boudreau.
