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I've seen a number of posts indicating homeschool students who are participating in debate or Model UN activities. How do you do this? Is it through the local high school or some other organization? 

Edited by 3andme
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As homeschoolers, we joined the YMCA Youth & Gov't delegation near us. It was open to all high school students regardless of school. Some public high schools have their own delegations, so you may/may not be able to join a delegation that is exclusively a public school delegation. I volunteered and was co-advisor of my DSs' Youth & Gov't delegation for 3 years. It's a lot of work, but well worth it! :)

 

A number of families in our homeschool group have joined STOA, which also has a few families from a local university-model high school (learning at school several days a week, home for the rest of the days a week). Teen Pact is also open to all. Both are Christian, so if you are secular you may not want to go that route.

 

For the National Forensics or Model UN or Mock Trial, look for a high school in your area and join their delegation. There may or may not be an extra hurdle to clear as a homeschooler, depending on if the club meets during school hours, is an after school club, or whether or not it is funded by the high school.

 

You can also consider becoming the designated advisor and forming a homeschool delegation, or a "mixed" delegation to also draw from private/charter/public high schools near you.

 

National Forensics League (speech/debate) -- secular

STOA (speech & debate) -- Christian
National Christian Forensics and Communication Association -- Christian

Christian Communicators of America -- Christian

Youth & Government (model legislation program) -- secular

TEEN Pact (government and the political process) -- Christian

Junior State of America (civics and politics) -- secular
Model United Nations (mock U.N. session) -- secular
Teen CourtYouth CourtMock Trial (mock judicial) -- secular

Edited by Lori D.
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My dc have done debate through the local public high school. They've both taken classes there part-time and done other extracurriculars/athletic teams too. The debate team is very small. In fact, I'm sorry to say that next year my younger ds may be the only returning debate team member. He has found two other students who may join, but I fear the team may not actually exist this fall.

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We've done debate in Stoa, a national forensics league for Christian homeschooled students. You can look at stoausa.org for more information. Stoa has 3 kinds of debate. NCFCA is another league similar to it, with 2 kinds. Both leagues have local clubs across the US and regional and national tournaments.

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The Model UN club my son belongs to was formed by several students who's schools did not have a club of their own. One of the mothers was very involved in MUN when she was in high school and she and her daughter started the club a few years ago. There are some public school kids and some homeschooled kids. We have to drive into Chicago to get there, which at the time they meet can take an hour or more, but it's worth it. My son will be going to the public high school this year part time and they have their own MUN club, but many have told me the teacher who runs it does nothing and the students don't really care, they do it for their college applications. So we will stick to the independent club, they are small and do a good job of helping the kids learn as they go and get them involved in tournaments that they attend. 

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My son started a Model UN club for independent students.  I did some searching and found mention of previous conferences happening at a particular high school.  I emailed the teacher mentioned asking for information.  We happened to come in at a great time, since the schools in the area were forming a formal MUN League and making efforts to expand to schools that didn't have participation.  (Currently it is more of a private school activity, with a couple public schools coming to only 1-2 conferences a year.)

 

MUN differs from debate in that the subject matter changes each conference.  So a student might represent Japan in a committee discussing women's issues one month and might represent Poland in a committee on refugees the next month and then might be China in a security council simulation discussing the invasion of Crimea.  Committees in our area are 12-30 students, each representing one country.  Because registration is relatively late, country assignments are usually made about 2 weeks before the conference.  (I think this late timeline is not typical in other areas, and especially not typical for conferences where schools are doing a lot of travel to go the the conference.)  They receive a background guide for the committee, usually written by the committee chair (a more senior high school student or college student).  This helps to steer the committee discussion (for example, will they be debating illegal narcotics trafficking or abuse of prescription opiods or production of counterfeit prescription drugs in a drug control committee).  Students write a 1 page policy paper that outlines their country's position on the committee topic.

 

There can also be crisis committees.  Instead of discussing a broad topic (education, the internet, refugees) they would be discussing a particular crisis (Syria, Crimea, South China Sea).  Frequently there will be new "injects" during this committee in which delegates will be informed that something particular has happened (a terrorist attack, a chemical attack, military force movements) that changes the framework of the debate.  

 

Some conferences will include a historical committee topic (Treaty of Versailles, Cuban Missile Crisis, Berlin Wall) or a domestic simulation (US Senate, Republican National Convention).  I think these are cool, but also prone to stagnation when delegates have not done adequate prep or when key delegates don't show up.

 

It can be quite extemporaneous with a lot of laurels to delegates who are able to speak confidently and think on their feet.  But quiet delegates can get a lot out of it too.  One of our club members rarely stood up to make public comments, but was very persuasive during the unmoderated break out sessions, and got a lot of his points into the resolutions that were voted upon.  One of our best club members had done several years of debate.  Others had a certain streak of drama showmanship, but little previous experience.  Because each student usually operates independently (our conferences don't usually have interlocking committees) it is well suited to small clubs or even individual delegate participation.

 

Our area does mostly monthly conferences with local high schools only.  We are remote and traveling to away conferences is expensive.  There is one large conference each fall that includes more schools and hopes to grow into a larger multi-state and international invitational.  Most conferences are Saturday only or Friday afternoon - Saturday late afternoon.  Our local events are very low fee, just enough to discourage blowing it off.  Other large events can be several hundred dollars in registration, but include multiple meals.  Our league did require all participating students to join the local chapter of the UN Association.  The League is a student branch of the chapter and falls under their liability.  Membership was free.

 

DS really enjoyed his MUN time.  It was a great intersection between international politics and role playing (he's also done historical reenactment and loves to put on a show at Halloween).  When he toured the college he'll attend in the fall, he was trilled to run into several students he knew who had moderated MUN conferences here.  

 

This website helped DS get started with research and prepping for committees.  Best Delegate

 

 

 

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