Persuasive Speech Topics for Middle School

When I was in school, there would always be this one kid every year in the annual elocution competition, who would belt out that overdone bit about 'I Have a Dream'. No offense meant to Martin Luther King or his rather soul stirring speech, but I have to admit that it used to get a bit too irritating hearing the same thing over and over again. And I used to think back then, why don't people come up with some original topics rather than the done and dusted ones about coming to bury Caesar and not to praise him?

So I had a dream myself to come up and suggest persuasive speech topics for middle school students. I can understand that perhaps at that age, they may not have the maturity to come up with topics of their own. So they can read on here, to get some really original speech topics that are not only interesting but quite contemporary too. And I guess, the judges might find it quite impressive too, if you write something on your own, rather than just blurt out another person's speech.

Preferred Topics for Middle School Students

A good speech idea is one on which the students write on their own, Something which is very contemporary to them, and they and other students can connect with. It should be a topic, which students themselves feel very comfortable with and hence they can speak about it better.

Current Affairs
Current affairs make really good speech topics because, along with elocution ability of the student, they also bring out the thought process and thinking ability of the student. Here are some speech topics for current affairs.

• Isn't Health Insurance the Right of all Americans?
• Nuclear Proliferation: Will Development of Nuclear Weapons Fuel a Third World War?
• Violent Video Games Should be Banned
• Is Death Penalty Inhuman?
• Euthanasia: The Right to Die?
• Some Thoughts About Human Cloning.
• Pros and Cons of Adoption.
• The Grim Reality of Climate Change.
• Use of Mobile Phones in Schools.
• Should an Extra Language be Made Mandatory in Schools

Student Life
There are some students who prefer talking about issues that are specific to people of their generation. As students can directly associate with some of these things, they tend to become very good topics to talk about, for them.

• Are Websites like Facebook or MySpace Substituting Face-to-Face Social Interaction
• Homework Should be Banned
• Television is a Bad Influence
• Pros and Cons of Coeducation Schools
• Importance of Finding a Career
• Is There a More Effective Punishment than Grounding
• Should Schools Make Uniforms Compulsory?
• The Cons and Cons of Junk Food. ('Cons' repeated twice for effect.)
• Sex Education in Schools
• Teen Pregnancy
• Best TV Shows for Middle School Students.

Funny Topics
There are some students that just cannot pull off the intensity, which is needed for serious topics and it would be best that they don't try those. So here are some light-hearted yet funny topics for a middle school speech.

• Unusual Career Choices
• Why Some Brands are More Popular in Schools than Others?
• Some Funny Experiences Last Year.
• Celebrities Who Have the Greatest Pull on American Students Today.
• A Critical Evaluation of Our Superheroes: Batman, Spiderman or Superman?
• What if There was No Harry Potter/Twilight?
• When I Grow Up...
• Stupid Things My Pet Keeps Doing.
• Is There Life After Death?
• Is There Life on Mars?
• Are Vampires Real?

As you can see, there is life beyond the done-and-dusted topics. These were some middle school level speech topics, which will be a much-needed breath of fresh air, not only for you, but also for the audiences and the judges!