WHY DEBATE?

Rhetorica's debate program empowers students to be enthusiastic civic participants, powerful advocates for ethical action, empathetic communicators, and fearless constructors of their individual voice.

Participation in debate has a profound effect on both individual students and on learning communities as a whole. Debate places value on the process of discussion, the free exchange of ideas, and a willingness to honestly and substantively engage with those who disagree with you. Debate mandates deep analysis of important issues and requires the re-thinking of issues that might be taken for granted. Importantly, it challenges students to empathize with points of view contrary to their own. I do not know any group of people, period, who are more willing to listen to arguments, admit when they are wrong, and change their opinion as readily as debaters. When you understand how argumentation works, you know when you are wrong, and the feeling of being wrong is normalized as an incentive to dig deeper and learn more about the subject - rather than to dig in your heels and be stubborn.

Debate also helps students to develop confidence in expressing themselves and their ideas. Public speaking is difficult for even most adults because it is accompanied by performance anxiety. And this anxiety is justified, after all, how much did you really get to practice and develop your oratorical skills in school? By introducing debate and public speaking at an early age, we normalize the process as simply another skill which you need to practice in order to become adept at. This is opposed to the conventional wisdom that some people are simply charismatic and others are not. Further, though, we can show them that public speaking is actually fun! We use a number of activities drawn from theater and improv work to practice thinking on our feet, without all of the negative pressure.

Debate is also important preparation for a student's future academic future and eventual career. The fact is that we don't even know what jobs will exist by the time our students graduate. Technological innovation and automation make trying to predict what specific knowledge will be useful impossible. Debate, however, focuses on the aspects of education that we do know will be important no matter what. These are:

1) Creativity

2) Collaboration

3) Communication

4) Critical thinking

These 'four C's' are considered the foundational future skills for whatever the employment and college landscape look like. And they are areas particularly well served by debate. In fact, there are few other activities I can think of that check all of these boxes so fully - especially while being fun and topical! Students must be creative in their argument construction, we deal with all sorts of topics that require new ways of thinking and applying logic. Topics surrounding art, philosophy, ethics, and more all call for creative thinking. Debaters work in teams of two or three students. They must collaborate effectively in order to do well in a round of debate. Debaters come to understand how to closely collaborate with others even when the pressure is on. Communication is a cornerstone of debate. We teach the public speaking and rhetorical skills that student's need to get their message across to an audience. We draw from ancient sources on rhetoric like Plato and Aristotle, as well as modern aspects of communication theory - like how to tailor your message to your medium. Finally, critical thinking is developed in debate through carefully considering how arguments are logically structured, doing in depth research to construct a position, and having to defend your position from informed objections. You also must be able to articulate and therefore understand the opposing side.

Finally, participation in debate has been demonstrated to lead to higher college admission and graduation rates. Top universities are no longer simply looking for students with the best test scores. They want students who can think critically and act collaboratively. It is no wonder that admissions officers consider debate one of the top extracurricular activities to look for.

Critical thinking is the ability to approach a problem from many angles, decide on the correct course of action, and map out the steps to reach your goal. It takes a lot of practice to think logically while also being creative enough to anticipate alternative perspectives.

Research skills include identifying key sources, learning what’s actually important, and constructing effective arguments. When researching a debate topic, students may find endless sources, but knowing what to read and how to use it are vital to constructing a persuasive argument and having the knowledge to backup your claims.

Articulation and clarity are often the most difficult to hone. To speak clearly and coherently isn’t easy on a normal day, imagine having to do it in front of a huge audience! Public speaking is a common fear, but learning to slow down, speak clearly, and organize your thoughts will guide any student through their presentation.

In a debate, and in life, adaptability is vital. Debate teaches students to listen to what others have to say and adapt their arguments to reflect the flow of the conversation and to gauge their strongest possible argument. No debate, no conversation in life, has a script. Students need to be able to adapt to keep the conversation flowing.

Confidence. How do you practice being confident if you aren’t confident in the first place? The goal is to not think about it. By making debate and learning fun, students will build confidence in their own skills and abilities, gain self-efficacy, and after some time, confident, will be their personality.  

About Rhetorica: 

We are an organization created by teachers and debate educators who want to bring debate programming to a larger student base and at a younger age. We combine the best of both worlds in debate education by working both with top level university debaters who are engaging and inspiring in the classroom - but we pair them with teachers who are pedagogical experts for a given age group - to help them plan and construct curriculum that is active, exciting, and developmentally appropriate. 

Our partner coaches include educators who have coached a three time NYS champion middle school debate team, multiple national middle school debate champions, as well as countless local tournament speaker award and tournament winners. We have had several alums make the official USA National Debate Team - an internationally competing high school team.