How You Can Help

Ways to help debate programs exist from the local to the national level.

There are myriad costs involved in debate: tournament registration fees, hiring judges, transportation and lodging at national-circuit tournaments, photocopying resources, evidence packets, coaching, and so on. Cash-strapped school districts often provide little to no financial support for teams.You can support TJHSST debate programs by donating to Academic Boosters.

Students from disadvantaged backgrounds consistently lack enriching extracurricular opportunities.

You can promote debate education in the mid-Atlantic region by donating to Perspectives. Perspectives offers a low-cost summer debate camp, supports inner-city debate programs, and works to provide debaters access to college scholarships.

Read Cross-X by Joe Miller and watch Accidental Hero to see how debate programs can inspire students stuck in underachieving urban schools. If you’re interested in starting a debate program in a struggling school district, contact the National Association of Urban Debate Leagues.

Why debate

Above all, debate should be done for the sake of debating.

Academic value, from Georgetown Debate Society report: http://tinyurl.com/3tqths

Academic value, from a Fulbright Scholar: http://tinyurl.com/45swyu

Business, from USA Today: http://tinyurl.com/3zluk

General reasons, from the Univ. of Vermont: http://tinyurl.com/6yohz2

College admissions, from a Yale professor: http://tinyurl.com/4xxlwb

• Debate is one of the most meaningful activities for high school students
• Debate helps build critical thinking, public speaking, researching, writing, listening, and leadership skills
• Giving back to the debate community allows more programs to start and involves more young people at existing programs

In brief, Why I Care

At a high school with so much emphasis on science and math, communication skills are often neglected. When I was a freshman, a drive for self-improvement pushed me to the join Lincoln-Douglas (LD) debate team and to research, write, and speak more than I needed for any of my classes, all without a coach.

When I was Teaching Coordinator, the LD team quadrupled in size; one area coach called us the “TJ army.” So I was devastated when the same people I taught every week did not elect me as Captain. I blamed myself, I blamed people who didn’t show up for the elections, until finally I stepped back and remembered why I started debating: not for a resume or trophies, but to tackle the same fear of public speaking that more Americans fear than death.

I remembered the tournament when a freshman told me she cried during her second round. I thought of the people who kept coming to team meetings but delayed attending any tournaments until there were no more left in the year. I sympathized with still others who were deterred from the start by the esotericism of policy debate and the prospect of debating alone in LD.

With a stronger vision than before, I co-founded the PF team in order to give those students another way to develop their communication skills just as LD had helped me become a more confident orator. The PF style is less esoteric, topics concern “hot button” issues, and students debate in pairs. The team thrives today with a dozen dedicated members.

To me, this creation is more than just some club with kids in suits. It represents the culmination of a high school debating career, my hopes for increased participation in debate and forensics, and my little footprint on the world.

…

You can’t know the fun of debate without experiencing it. Some novices get discouraged. Debate can be a scary experience for people not comfortable with public speaking. I certainly was one of those people. My first tournament, my legs shook uncontrollably, I looked at the floor and window instead of at the judge, and my rebuttals were punctuated by very long pauses when I didn’t know what to say next. Four years later, I can tell you that debate is a very effective confidence builder. And it’s fun. Why else would someone voluntarily write more research papers than needed for any of their classes, just to spend their Saturdays in a business suit?

For the skills it builds, debate certainly has an impressive who’s who list.