Why Debate?

Debate is such an integral part of our society that most of us don’t realize its lengthy and important history.  According to some scholars, debate has an ancient and honorable twenty-five hundred year history as the heart of the western intellectual tradition reaching as far back as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.  Additionally, debate helped lay the foundation for the democratic traditions that are at the basis of our American civilization.  And debate is the oldest competitive state tournament sponsored in the State of Minnesota.   

At the middle school and high school levels, debate is a fun and competitive activity in which you get the chance to crush opponents with your verbal finesse and cross-examine them until they submit to your obviously superior skills, or at least until the timer goes off.

Debate challenges you to develop life long skills.

• Critical Thinking                        
• Public Speaking
• Rhetoric
• Organization
• Problem Solving
• Issue Analysis
• Listening
• Ethics
• Team Building
• Research

The debate season runs from September through December. During the season, students debate two different topics: the first topic is selected by debate teachers in August; the second topic is chosen by participating students.  A few of the more recent topics have included Gun Control, the Kyoto Protocol, Iraq and the impact that Walmart has on America.

Debate is open to 7^th -12^th graders and you don’t have try out.  Just show up, prepared to work hard and have fun. You get to debate with a partner, and there are three levels of debate, novice for beginners, JV and Varsity. There are 2-3 practices a week, and there are seven Saturday tournaments during the regular season.

Other Interesting Facts about Debate:

• One study showed that over 80% of members of Congress were former debaters.
• Another survey found that of 703 former debaters, 633 had at least 1 advanced degree, and 209 had more than one.  Additionally, four in ten had law degrees, four in ten had Master’s degrees and two in ten had a Ph.D. or other doctoral degrees.
• One 2004 study suggested that the reading scores of debaters in NY, Chicago, Kansas City, Seattle and St. Louis improved 25% more than non-debaters in only 1 year of debate.
• 70% of Law School deans recommend participation in debate as a pre-requisite to application.

At the top of many professions are former debaters.  These are just a few examples.

• Presidents: Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George Bush, Lyndon Johnson, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson
• Entertainers: Adam Sandler, Brad Pitt, Oprah, Michael Stipe, James Earl Jones, Jackson Browne, John Wayne and Harry Connick Jr.
• CEO’s: Lee Iacocca, Ted Turner and Bill Gates
• Judges: Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, and Stephen G. Breyer,  Circuit Court Judge Gerald Kogan
• Other famous former debaters: South African President Nelson Mandela, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Tom Brokaw, Jane Pauley, Senator George McGovern, Former British Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan (competed in the early 60’s for Macalester College), Los Angeles Attorney Thomas Hozduk, President of the University of Illinois David B. Henry, Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and Former Ambassador to England Four Star Admiral William Crowe, Senator Phil Grahmm, Ladybird Johnson, Macolm X, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Jay, James Monroe, St. Augustine and many more.

Looking for more information? Contact Lisa Anderson (landerson@hill-murray.org) during the 2007-2008 school year.

Sources:

Shawnalee Whitney, Assoc. Professor of Communication, University of Alaska at Anchorage, Vanguard University, February 22, 2001.
Jeffery Parcher, Report of the Philodemic Debate Society, Georgetown University, 1998.
Linda M. Collier, Associate Professor of Communication, University of Missouri-Kansas City, 2004.