I believe I did a good job overall on my TED-style talk performance. I think it was evident that I was very passionate about and did a lot of research on my topic. Because of this, I was able to deliver my speech extemporaneously and not use any notes. I did struggle with not giving the speech in front of a live audience though. I like to bounce off the energy of my audience when I am speaking, but I found I could not do this with a computer screen. I had to work much harder to seem lively and use gestures because I was receiving no reactions or feedback from an audience. Despite this challenge, I think I did a good job and am proud of my speech.
One idea I have for the History of a Public Controversy assignment is to talk about sex education in high schools and universities. This has been a major point of discourse for a long time. Some people believe we should teach comprehensive sex education, including contraceptive options and sexually transmitted infections. This way, young adults will know about all of their options and not face any surprises when they become sexually active. However, other Americans think we should only teach abstinence and not talk about contraceptives or safe sex practices, as they promote sex within children. This issue focuses on a lot of American values and tradition, as many religious Americans do not like the idea of promoting sex before marriage. However, many progressive Americans believe that sex is inevitable, so young adults should at least be as educated as possible on the subject.
This can also tie into the topic of abortion, which would be another good controversy to focus on. Abortion also centers around the difference in American values and is argued over what policies should be implemented surrounding this issue. I believe both topics involve a lot of material worth analyzing and discussing in our assignment.
I think that could be a very good topic because there is a lot of information about the topic, I also really like your idea you just said about prescription drug advertisements.
I totally agree that not having an audience kind of made giving the TED talk difficult in some ways, but your talk was really great. In terms of controversy, I really like the idea of sex education because it’s been an issue in schools for so long and continues to be debated and evolving even today.
I would definitely agree with the struggle with a lack of audience, as I can’t seem to adjust to speaking to my computer. As for project topics, I like your idea about sex education, because I know that in my time in elementary and middle school I was taught very little.