Upper School Intersession 2025

"Don’t tell me words don’t matter. I have a dream – just words words. We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal – just words. We have nothing to fear but fear itself – just words, just speeches" (President Barack Obama).

Back in the day, in his first campaign for president, Barack Obama promised change; yet in formulating that promise he relied on rhetorical rules, which for more than 2000 years have remained unchanged. Across the ages another politician and orator, Marcus Tullius Cicero, can help us analyze and appreciate Obama’s and other contemporary politicians’ rhetorical accomplishments.

We will look at excerpts from speeches by Obama, Bill Clinton, Pericles, Cicero, and Tacitus with an eye to their enactments of specific rhetorical rules–formulated in ancient times, followed to this day. Words have always mattered.