Students Have Their Say in Speech Contest

He looked a bit like the Little Tramp, ambling on stage in his bow tie, black derby hat and rumpled overcoat. But 10-year-old Mariano Diaz was not re-creating Charlie Chaplin for the public speaking contest at Madrona Elementary School on Monday. Once he opened his mouth, he was clearly a little Winston Churchill, spinning yarns about his wartime cronies.

“Joseph Stalin was an odd man, quite pushy, you know,” Mariano said in an gruff English accent, stabbing the air for emphasis with an eight-inch cigar still wrapped in cellophane. “And President Roosevelt was a dear chap. How I miss him.”

Fidgeting in the bleachers were a disheveled Albert Einstein, one glamorous Princess Diana and even Bill Gates, sporting a new slicked-back hairstyle.

Olivia Timpson won the historical-figure portion of the contest with her portrayal of Lady Di.

The 11-year-old wore a white taffeta dress under a cocktail-length fur coat. She donned gloves and oversized high heels. Her hair was up in braids.

“Being a royal was not that great,” she lamented. “Charles and I fought a lot and I was so unhappy.”

Olivia, who is from England and travels there with her parents regularly, said she wanted to make a speech that memorialized Diana.

“I wanted people to know she more was than just a princess,” she said. “She was so good to everyone, comforting sick people and AIDS patients. There was no one like her.”

Besides historical portrayals, the fifth-grade contest included storytelling and demonstrative and persuasive speech. Winners from 18 schools throughout the district will speak at a final performance May 27 at Madrona.

Organizer Mike Kay said he allows students to delve into any biography or subject they want as long as the presentation is historically accurate or relevant to current events.

“We teach the kids we do have freedom of speech in this country,” he said. “Although a few years ago someone did Hitler, which caused a big fiasco.”

Kristin Miley decided she wanted to do her persuasive speech on the death penalty.

“I’m not some crazy nut trying to free the criminals, but the death penalty is a harsh law. It sounds uncivilized,” 10-year-old Kristin boldly told her classmates.

She was motivated after learning about a recent execution on the TV news. “I didn’t think it was right, so I thought it would make a good speech,” Kristin said. “My dad didn’t agree with me, but my mom said if this is what I believed I could go ahead.”

In other categories, students were news reporters for “Good Morning USA,” announcing live coverage of such events as the 1964 Alaska earthquake and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Some offered golfing and violin-playing demonstrations, and others acted out children’s stories from Dr. Seuss and Calvin and Hobbes.

Kay said he is always surprised at what his students come up with every year.

“See how motivated these kids are? They’re really into their speeches,” he said. “And that opens up the whole world to them.”