A public speaking class ought to involve a lot of public speaking, not a lot of writing.

The high school classroom needs to be a place of ritual, tradition, convention, form, and ceremony, all of which are better means of maintaining decorum than a stern eye, even though there’s nothing wrong with a stern eye. When the habits of classroom decorum are formal—standing together, sitting together, reciting together, addressing one another by surnames—they create a mood, an ethos, which is far more effective in regulating and elevating behavior than an abstract credo like, “In this class, we believe our classmates deserve respect.”

The high school classroom needs to be a place of ritual, tradition, convention, form, and ceremony, all of which are better means of maintaining decorum than a stern eye, even though there’s nothing wrong with a stern eye. When the habits of classroom decorum are formal—standing together, sitting together, reciting together, addressing one another by surnames—they create a mood, an ethos, which is far more effective in regulating and elevating behavior than an abstract credo like, “In this class, we believe our classmates deserve respect.”

The high school classroom needs to be a place of ritual, tradition, convention, form, and ceremony, all of which are better means of maintaining decorum than a stern eye, even though there’s nothing wrong with a stern eye. When the habits of classroom decorum are formal—standing together, sitting together, reciting together, addressing one another by surnames—they create a mood, an ethos, which is far more effective in regulating and elevating behavior than an abstract credo like, “In this class, we believe our classmates deserve respect.”