American School in Fez Invites you to ....

A weekend of debating takes place this weekend in Fez .

The United States has the oldest and largest high school debate honour society in the world, the National Speech and Debate Association, formerly the National Forensics League. (They had to change the name because everyone kept on getting them confused with that other NFL- the one with the strangely shaped ball.)

The NSDA competes in four forms of debate and six Individual Events- but also encourages the highest standards of humility, service, leadership, respect, and integrity. It is an honour to be part of the society, and so much is expected of those students who make it. The best high school debaters and speakers in the country, and arguably in the world, meet every year at “Nationals”, this year in Dallas, Texas.

Five years ago, in Fez,  our local American school, Amicitia, started participating in NSDA events, holding the first high school debate tournaments in the country, and starting a network of schools here in Morocco who have joined up with the NSDA and compete in four tournaments a year. Seven schools have joined up with the network, both American and language schools, and another three schools are set to join next year, with potentially every American school in the country now in the league.

This year for the first time Moroccan students went abroad to participate in debate tournaments up in England, and the first international high school debate tournament was held up in Ifrane, with a Kuwaiti school joining in.

And now, this weekend, all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, five schools will compete at Amicitia American School to see who is the best of the best in Morocco. Events include Values Debate, Policy Debate, Humorous Interpretation of Literature, Serious Interpretation, Duo Interpretation, Poetry Reading, Radio Commentary, After Dinner Speaking, Oratory, Impromptu, Extemporaneous Speaking, Storytelling, and Expository. The lucky 22 students who win the top two slots in many of these events will then be allowed to attend Nationals in the United States. For the first time ever, Morocco will be represented with the best in the world.

Amicitia invites observers to come to the campus and see for themselves the future leaders of Morocco.

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