Nov. 22, 2016 – West Bend, WI -West Bend High School student reporter Justin Scherzer does justice to forensics coach Doris Sexton. A portion of his story from The Current is below.
Sexton, who still substitute teaches on occasion, has always believed that both forensics and debate are activities that can be extremely beneficial to high school students, giving them skills in speech and communication that can be useful for the rest of their lives. Knowing this significant impact the activity can have on students is what has kept her going for so long.
“They’re activities that do wonderful things for kids,” Sexton said. “With debate they work a lot with research skills, organizing, and being persuasive, and forensics gives kids the opportunity to be in front of people and to communicate with them.”
Now that speech is no longer a required class at WBHS, Sexton is passionate about getting students exposed to the world of public speaking because she believes a huge problem current employers have with young employees is the lack of the ability to formally communicate.
“One of the major issues that most employers will often talk about is someone’s ability to talk, to explain things, for two people to sit down and come to some agreement,” Sexton said.
Doris Sexton in 1989.
Sexton says that some of her most valued moments of being a coach are hearing from graduated students who had previously been a speaker or debater for her, and seeing what life has brought them.
Read the rest of Justin Scherzer’s story by clicking here or logging onto The Current.
Photograph by Justin Scherzer, Current Staff. The archive photos are taken from Helios ’89, the WBHS yearbook for the 1988-89 school year.