Anyone have any experience with ICC? (Institute for Cultural Communications)

We have just (May 2014) finished our first year in an ICC chapter.  We are now in our second year.  I’ll give you an honest response without a lot of sugar coating because that’s my style.  Take my comments with an appropriate grain of salt … or sugar!  LOL.

I had a horrible time understanding HOW the program worked.  It felt extremely disorganized to me.  I didn’t understand the hierarchy.  I did not understand that by saying it was “child led” they meant it was literally a program that the child needed to initiate and structure for themselves depending on their goals and interest.  I didn’t understand what the children were supposed to be doing each meeting because it was fairly relaxed.  That was good in many ways because public speaking and debate can be daunting for children to approach.  But in other ways I was frustrated at not feeling like the afternoon was productive and time well spent away from lessons and home. I’m fine with “child led” activities but I felt it was the type of activity in which we should be accomplishing things and I wasn’t sure my children would get there on their own without at least a little nudge.

After about six months, I got it.  This happened mostly because I sat down and read the entire ICC website from top to bottom until i understood it.  Then I took the children’s books and really sat down and read them myself.  I had one child in BPS and one in YSG I.  Now, mind you they had been writing, performing and participating all that time.  It just didn’t feel structured to ME.  After this point in the year it became more clear because I inisisted/encouraged them to finish their books by May, which was the end of our chapter year.  And things proceeded ok through the end of the chapter year and both children finished their books. 

Note:  the YSG I book had so many points at which my child should have been entering information during the year (at the chapter meetings) and we had not realized that because in our chapter it was never bluntly discussed (as in “open your books to page X, we are now going to do this activity, record your information”) and i gather now, that that is just not how it’s usually done.  It’s up to the child to be aware and engaged with their book and what’s needed from their chapter setting.  I can now see the benefits of this approach although I still don’t think I love it.  We did have some children using an older version of the book and some using a newer version.  There were a few differences that contributed to the confusion.

As the first year ended, I was thinking much much more positively about the whole ICC program because (and only because) my children really did grow in terms of their abilities and skills in both public speaking and debate.  I also saw increased confidence in speaking in general in both my kids.  They also had grown to love the group of children who were in our chapter.  It was the first sense of community we’d had here. 

Our second year, the one we are in now, is a little more complicated because of a new chapter forming in the area but I think it will turn out to be another really good year in terms of their growth, skills learned, friendships formed.  I have one child doing YSG II this year and one doing YSG I.  I made a cheat sheet for the YSG I book showing what they need to gahter in chapter (dates, signatures, evaluation sheets, recording of participation, etc) and if you want it just email me.  My older child did that for her new YSG II book too because we realized without it, you can easily be stuck at the end of the year with no idea of that information although you probably did it all.

One other observation … I understood this ICC organization to be one that we could participate in locally (in our chapter) and that we would be fully participating and enjoying the benefits of it by doing so.  That’s not entirely true.  If your child does not particiapte in a CFC conference at some point then other smaller, regional workshops (with chapters near you), forums and competitions are not available to them.  They need to have attended a national event or a regional conference in order to enjoy those benefits. 

This was not the case our first year but the rules changed this summer after I’d already signed up both children again.  This is very very frustrating because we now have no opportunities outside of participating in our local chapter this year.  If I had known this I’m not sure we would have signed up again.  But last year, before the rule change, we did have a great time with other regional chapters competing (there were debates, speeches, etc.) and it was really a fun and interesting and challenging way for the kids to take what they had been learning in chapter and with their local speeches in community and see what a wider audience thought.

That’s my super big NUT SHELL … I hope it’s helpful and not too much to digest?!  It’s hot on my mind right now becuase of some other issues unrelated to my general feelings about ICC so that’s probably why I could/did share so much.

As far as other groups … I think that Ms. Moon who started ICC broke away from a much much larger national organization that did speech and debate but I don’t know much about them or if they are faith based or not.  I know that locally the university offers a tutoring program for local schools and has an organized competition program.  Maybe that’s an option?  A lot of schools have their own coaches for their own teams too.  I don’t know how they organize their competitions though.