Last weekend several historic events were wrapped up in a single event, the first Christian homeschool parliamentary debate national championship, in Little Rock, Arkansas. This was not the only first.
For the first time, Ethos Staff squared off in a nationals final round. Ty Harding and his partner were against Josiah McPeak and Peter Voell, all of whom will be teaching at Ethos Seminars this summer or researching for the sourcebook.
Winning finals on a 7-0 decision, technically a second since it was also done last year by Josiah McPeak and Patrick Shipsey when they won NCFCA nationals in Team Policy, is also pretty cool. Another first in recorded homeschool debate history is that the winners of a national championship were undefeated the entire tournament.
How did Josiah and Peter do it? They have put thinking first. Debating topics like whether Trump 2012 would reelect Obama, or whether “we must shoot first and ask questions later”, there is no way to succeed without mental agility.
I hope you consider attending an Ethos Seminar for the first time this summer, because we uniquely can bring some of the top communicators ever, including three NCFCA policy debate champions (Josiah McPeak, Patrick Shipsey, and Rebekah Yellis), two parli debate champions (Josiah and Peter Voell), and one Sweepstakes Champion (Kawika Vellalos). This doesn’t even mention the countless tournament wins and national placements in college of Kawika Vellalos, Joanna Griffith, Tim Snyder, Isaiah McPeak, and Amy McPeak across formats from moot court to parli to team value to LD policy.
While we bring expertise in the topic and top level experience, the focus of our teaching is to help you to think, not to tell you what to think.
As an aside… I remember Josiah as the little brother who said he would never debate. Haha.