At the start of eighth grade, thirteen-year-old Leo was drowning in a sea of disconnected ideas. His essays were often returned with notes about “fragmented organization.” At home, he would stare at blank documents for hours. His mother, Sarah, watched him struggle to untangle his thoughts and turn them into essays, unsure of how to help. The turning point came from a source Sarah didn’t expect: a communications club he started attending. To prepare for a mini-debate, Leo had to organize a two-minute speech with a clear beginning, middle, and end. He had to swap words like “stuff” for precise nouns and anticipate what his audience needed to hear.…