2024.06.19
Aim High!
Eiwa held its annual speech and recitation contest for high school students last Wednesday, June 12. Actually, the contest took place over a month or two, with all the students starting to write their speeches or memorize the recitations in April. Then, at the end of May or in early June, each first and second year high school class held its ‘in class’ contest in which all the students participated. Finally, the best students were chosen and gave their performances in the chapel on the 12th.
Sixteen students took part in this year’s final contest: six giving an original speech and ten a recitation. I was struck by how many original speeches were given from the heart, with students talking about serious health issues their loved ones had faced or how they survived stressful times relating to club life. Congratulations to all the students who had the courage and talent to write and give their original speeches in front of all of us.
As usual, the recitations were divided into long and short choices, with five students performing extracts of long speeches given by Emma Watson and Helen Keller, and another five students shorter speeches by BTS or Martin Luther King. For older people like myself, Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech from 1963 is particularly famous, and, sadly, still relevant in 2024. We were also pleased to include Helen Keller’s speech about our responsibility, as citizens of the world, to push for peace. Given in 1931, just six years before she visited Eiwa, her comment that “permanent peace and prosperity will come when we realize that we live by each other and not unto ourselves” is still something we humans need to learn as we continue to fight senseless wars around the globe.
For the students, BTS’s speech was probably the most popular choice. In fact, it was a student who recommended that we include that speech three years ago. Not being part of the “K-Pop generation,” I wasn’t familiar with it, but wholeheartedly agree that the “Love Myself” message is a great one. The students also positively responded to Emma Watson’s speech on gender equality, given to the U.N. in 2014. Many young women at our school know and look up to this “Harry Potter girl.”
In the end seven students were given Awards of Distinction by the judges, three for their original speech, and two in each of the recitation categories. The three from the original speech group will go on to represent Eiwa at the Central Shizuoka Prefectural Speech Contest in September. Good luck to them and, once again, congratulations to all our students who worked hard in this contest over the past two months. As the program says, “Aim high! You may not hit the target, but your arrow will fly far.”
