Blogs

Andy Charrier, the extemp and debate coach at Lakeville South High School in Minnesota, recently posted

A group of teenagers huddled together mentally preparing to argue the morals, values, opinions and ethics related to today’s economics.

Putting the K in debates new podcast with Calum Matheson.

In the world of high-school debate, the nerd can be king

He went on to win debate tournaments, and even impress girls, all over the English-speaking world.

In my role as architect and leader for our risk management initiatives, I’m challenged with the responsibility of transforming the interpretation, integration and application of “risk thinking” across our global enterprise.

Debate prepares you for thinking on your feet, researching, organizing your thoughts, taking different sides of a topic, working solo or as a team, public speaking, etc… I can’t recommend this enough

As an employer, I consider university-level debating favourably when assessing resumes.

In a non-descript and inexplicably hot classroom at Wayne State University, two pairs from different Detroit schools are set to debate.

Far from the athletic fields of Manual High
School, Kahdijah James is engaged in what she calls
a sport of the mind. 

I was fortunate that at Olympus specifically, and in Utah generally, high-school debate was a big deal, an activity where a bookish boy could find affirmation. I joined the debate team, found my tribe, and was off.

Debate. Most of us do it every day in our lives, though most do not do it as an organized sport. Yes, I would  ave never thought of debate as a sport, yet it is just as hardcore as any physical one.

STUART — Speaking in front of crowds used to scare the living daylights out of Joseph Smith.

But where the Jensen Beach High sophomore saw a flaw, the school’s debate team coach saw potential.

Southtown Star

Greenberg, now a pre-med student in his junior year at Duke University, said he had his concerns about global issues nurtured while he was on the debate team at Homewood-Flossmoor High School.

"Being on the team exposed me to a slew of social issues and what's happening in the world. It cultivated my interests," said Greenberg, who was at the top of H-F's 2007 graduating class.

Suffolk Voice

Through debate leagues, many youths around the country have been given hope for a better future. Debate has helped students prepare for college and the future ahead of them. One local Boston organization helping these youths is the Boston Debate League (BDL), an organization geared toward guiding students to enhance their speaking skills while keeping them off the streets and out of trouble after school hours. Founded in 2005, the BDL has since helped a many students from Boston area public schools prepare for college and to ultimately change their future lives.

Debate teams are expanding in the Boston Public Schools, and new research shows the activity strengthens student performance. Report for BNN News by Shoba Spencer. Aired December 4, 2009.

Denver Post

The Baker Hostetler Debate Classic is a razor-sharp competition featuring students from Denver Public Schools who thrive on uncertainty and go for the kill.

On the afternoon before the debate, students from Martin Luther King Jr. Early College gathered for their last practice in the school library.

By Sophie Gilbert 
from WASHINGTONIAN MAGAZINE, November 2009, pp. 66-67

When Politico ran a front-page story about Austan Goolsbee, the headline was DEBATE CHAMP GOES POPULIST FOR OBAMA'S PLAN. The story noted how "silver-tongued" Goolsbee – recently appointed to the President's Council of Economic Advisers – had been a national debate champion at Yale.

USNWR

There is debate in everyone of these!

With today's economy, college students are more worried than ever about what kind of career awaits them. The best way to increase the odds that the job you'll get won't involve waiting tables or flipping burgers is to get the skills you need while you're still in college. Here are our 11 critical job skills that every college student should master, regardless of his or her ultimate career path:

1. Writing clearly and forcefully. Students often don't recognize how important writing skills are in many professions: Many students, without a trace of shame, proclaim "I can't write" and consistently avoid courses that require them to write papers. But the "I can't write" excuse won't stand you in good stead later when you have to write a strategic plan for your business, create clinic notes in your medical practice, write briefs for your legal case, or pitch your advertising plan in a report to the client. Actively seek out college courses that give you lots of opportunities to write. And use the feedback you get on one writing assignment to improve on the next.

For this group of high school students, there is nothing better than a healthy debate – even if it means taking a side they don’t agree with.

“If there’s a reason to argue, we’ll argue,” said Dillon Wright, a junior at Nashua High School North. “And if everyone picks one side, I’m just going to pick the other side.”

Wright is part of a group of students who have reformed Nashua’s high school debate team, which has been defunct for as long as anyone in the school district can remember. It started this year, with 14 students from both high schools making up the team.

They meet after school twice a week to share their arguments and research, as well as practice their debating skills.

Chicago Tribune

If you ever want to argue politics with Flynn Makuch, be warned: She'll mop the floor with you, and she'll do it without calling you a socialist or a Nazi.

Makuch, 17, is one of the top debaters at Glenbrook North High School, a forensics powerhouse that just finished co-hosting a massive national tournament. She can pile fact upon fact until your creaky claims are rubble. Then she'll turn around and cold-bloodedly refute everything she just said.

Great Falls Tribune

Resolved: Student debaters are the future leaders of the free world.

That point is arguable for many people, but the hundreds of debaters gathered at C.M. Russell High School on Friday would certainly affirm that topic resolution.

Six members (three teams) of the Bainbridge High School (BHS) Debate Team traveled to Houston County High School in Warner-Robins this weekend for a debate tournament.

Fourteen teams competed in four rounds of debate in the Jr. Varsity Bracket debating the National Resolve:  The United States Government should substantially increase its funding of social services for those persons living in poverty in the United States.

RGJ.com

Debate is an extracurricular school activity that could take as much time as an academic subject, but some Reno High School students said it's expanded their minds and helped make their classes and assignments easier.

Resolved: That merit pay based on student achievement should be a significant component of K-12 teacher compensation in United States public schools.