I believe in Peace Through Public Speaking. Last year, I did a program at my school called Montessori Model UN, which stands for Montessori Model United Nations, and I learned about the power of Public Speaking.  It was a year-long program where we discussed real world issues  and had a conference in New York City at the end of the year. It was my second year in this program, so I thought I knew what to expect from the conference, but to my surprise there were delegates from all over the world from places like Japan, China and The Dominican Republic. Also, there were some well renowned, retired NFL linebackers on the board of advisors who organize the program all year.

During the opening ceremony, all of of the advisors gave such incredible speeches thanking everyone who participated in the program that year.  During their speeches, they briefly went over some of the world issues that we had been studying and their personal opinion on those specific matters. To my amazement, they knew information about these topics that I did not, and each of their speeches informed me in a different way.  This was a strange feeling for me, for as I said earlier, I thought I knew what to expect this year, but I didn’t. These were issues I had been studying all year, shouldn’t I know everything about them?

I encountered the same obstacle within my own committee, which was full of children my age. Everyone seemed to have brought their own interpretation of the issues we were studying, and there varying interpretations made understanding the issues quite perplexing. All of these issues by far predated us, so it seemed surprising that children my age seemed to know more about certain subtopics than other kids.  Each and every speech had its own message that enriched the discussion even more, adding layers and layers of new information, which constantly forced us  to switch gears.

I left the conference knowing more than I ever could have by studying it on my own. About my own topics, and the power of public speaking. I believe that if children twelve years of age can comprehend and write a speech on a certain world  issue, that public speaking has the potential to change the world for the better.