Program Widget
Everything we teach, and how a Thursday works.
Invictus Fides meets Thursday afternoons and evenings, August through May. Students take speech classes, the whole club eats dinner together, and the night ends in debate. Here is the full picture.
Speech classes begin
Two rotations of classes through the afternoon: Platform, Interpretation, Extemp, Impromptu, Apologetics, Mars Hill, and Slam Poetry. Parliamentary debate meets every other week. Students attend the classes they registered for.
The IF Moment
The whole club gathers for a short devotional led by students. More on this below.
Dinner together
Everyone brings their own dinner and we eat as one club. Nobody eats alone or wonders what happens next.
Debate instruction
Team Policy and Lincoln Douglas instruction by level: casework, evidence, theory, and drills.
Practice rounds
Full rounds with parent judges and written ballots, week after week. It is the fastest way to improve that we know of.
Debate is the deep end of the program: a season-long discipline of research, argument, and grace under pressure. Students pick a format and stay with it for the year.
Team Policy
Partners argue one big policy resolution all season long. Research heavy, evidence driven, and the backbone of Thursday nights.
Lincoln Douglas
Value debate. Fewer evidence cards, more philosophy: justice, liberty, and what we owe each other, argued with care.
Parliamentary
A new resolution every round and a short window to build a case. Quick thinking, current events, and plenty of humor.
Students under 12 start in junior classes that build the same skills at their speed, then step up to full competition when they are ready.
Parliamentary debate is the one event with a gate on it. It meets every other week in the afternoon, and it is open to students who are 16 by October 1, have competed in debate for two years, and have completed an application and interview.
Every student finds a home somewhere in speech. Some love the polish of a memorized Platform speech, some love the adrenaline of limited prep. All of it builds the same muscle: clear thinking, out loud.
Platform
Prepared speeches the student writes and polishes across the season: persuasive, informative, and more. Memorized, refined, and truly theirs.
Interpretation
Literature performed from memory, alone or with a partner. Students cut a story, build the characters, and carry it with voice and gesture alone.
Extemporaneous
A current-events question, a short prep window, then a polished answer on the spot. Extempers know what is in the news.
Impromptu
A surprise topic and barely any prep time. Terrifying for about three weeks, then strangely fun.
Apologetics
Students prepare all season to answer big questions about God, truth, and the Christian faith, clearly and from the heart.
Mars Hill
Students take something out of today’s culture, a film, a song, a book, and weigh it out loud against a biblical worldview. This is the event for the student who is always asking what a story is really saying.
Slam Poetry
Original poetry written to be performed out loud, where rhythm and honesty carry as much weight as the words.
The IF Moment
Every week the whole club stops and a student leads us in devotion. It lasts twenty minutes, and it explains why this club exists. Speech and debate are the tools. This is the point.
Ready always to give an answer for the hope that is in us · 1 Peter 3:15
Stoa, explained for newcomers
We compete in Stoa, the national speech and debate league built by and for Christian homeschooling families. Stoa runs tournaments across Texas and the country, capped each spring by NITOC, the national championship.
We do more than attend. Invictus Fides hosts two Stoa tournaments each year at Dallas Baptist University: The Prologue in October and the Texas Escalade in March.
You don't need tournament ambitions to join us. Plenty of students compete close to home at first, and some seasons the biggest win is a shy kid volunteering to lead the IF Moment.
Stoa at a glance
Stoa's Mission
“We equip homeschool students, through competitive speech and debate, to think critically, engage graciously, and speak boldly from a Biblical worldview.”
Stoa's Vision
“Until generations of faithful and compelling communicators make Jesus Christ known in every sphere.”
Stoa's Values
- Biblical worldview · Scripture as the authority
- People · every person bears God's image
- Excellence · in communication and character
- Christ-centered community · gracious and servant-hearted
- Local freedom, shared standard · clubs lead locally
- Stewardship · faithful with time, talent, finances
From Stoa's published mission, vision, and values · stoausa.org
See it for yourself in May.
Once a year we open club night to prospective families: watch students compete, see the whole evening up close, and ask us anything. The interest form is how invitations go out.