Public speaking is a critical skill for children and adults alike, and in the current era, where telecommunications are king, this is more true than ever.  According to textbook publisher Houghton-Mifflin Harcourt: 

“Many tools put a spotlight on oral communication: FaceTime, Skype, Flipgrid, Zoom, to name a few. Because of COVID-era online instruction, all teachers are now using such technology for instruction. The impact of all these tools? Increased emphasis on the importance of oral communication.

How well or how poorly a person speaks is on display everywhere. Ironically, as teachers embrace the tools that showcase speaking, they create a lot of evidence proving that students don’t speak well. Video after video that teachers post on YouTube show mediocre and potentially embarrassing student speech. It isn’t the student's fault. Teachers were focused on the video/podcast/webinar technologies instead of focusing on the oral communication the technologies were designed to share. That has got to change.”

As parents, we have an opportunity and a responsibility to influence our children’s school offer an even better set of resources.  This petition asks Acellus to begin offering Public Speaking as an elective for middle and high school students.  Sign today to help convince Acellus our kids need Public Speaking skills!