The Alsion Debate Club: Insight into the Artform and Its Relevance for Alsion Students
Debate. What is it? Google defines debate as “a formal discussion on a particular topic in a public meeting or legislative assembly, in which opposing arguments are put forward.” This definition broadly suits our purpose. We are discussing debate as one of many extracurricular activities that kids around the nation (and even the world) participate in. Although there are several styles of debate, we will be focusing on Public Forum (PF), the style in which we participate in.
By: Armaan Sharma and Anushree Samsi
What is Public Forum?
Public Forum is a two-person debate event. It was created to be the most accessible form of debate, as other styles are quite technical, limiting their impact on the general public. PF resolutions are quite versatile but typically center around current event topics that discuss policy implementations, the benefits, and harms of different ideas, or the validity of a notion. The topic changes every two months or every month.
How does it work?
While different debate styles have their own unique experiences, they all share the common theme of debating for or against a resolution and having to convince judges of your position. To do this, you write two separate cases each presenting arguments from the specific side. On weekends, you attend debate tournaments where you participate in multiple rounds. The beauty is that you do not know which side you will be arguing before the tournament so you have to adapt to both sides. Team will read their opening cases and then each person will give a speech/speeches and participate in crossfires that can help clarify or poke holes in the opposing team’s logic. Ultimately, the judge will vote for the pro or affirmative side arguing for the resolution of the con or negative side arguing against.
Overall benefits of debate:
There are several essential skills you will learn from debating, including but not limited to:
- Communication: learning how to clearly and effectively communicate your point is an essential skill in order to persuade your judge and win debates
- Critical thinking: Debate teaches you how to construct and deconstruct arguments through trying to further your own point and disassemble your opponents
- Open world view: Debate forces you to argue for both sides of a resolution encouraging more open perspectives about different issues
- Improved Research Skills: Debate requires lots of research on the topic which can increase your ability to quickly synthesize large amounts of reading and information
- Quick-thinking: Through debate, you develop in-round skills that force you to be quick on your feet and find ways to articulate your point without significant prep time
While building such essential skills will undoubtedly help later down the line, as high schoolers, many of us tend to focus on college applications and what looks good on them. It should come as no surprise that debate can make your application more competitive. Even if you are not extremely successful, colleges recognize that debate fosters essential skills that set individuals up for success in life. The Golden State Academy recognizes additional benefits seen below:
According to the Wall Street Journal:
- State and national award winners have a 22% to 30% higher acceptance rate at top-tier colleges.
- Even without winning major awards, participation in speech and debate is reflected in the above-average acceptance rate for forensic students (+4%).
- This is significantly better than other extracurricular activities that tend to recruit from the same pool of students as forensic teams such as school newspaper reporter (+3%), sports team captain (+5%), class president (+5%), and band (+3%).
Origin of the Alsion Debate Team
We started debating at different times, but we partnered together in PF in September of 2021. After many recommended the activity, we were intrigued, as it served as an opportunity to productively express our personalities. When we partnered together last year, we wanted to provide other Alsion students with the same opportunity, causing us to create the Alsion debate team. Right now the small size of our club (just three members) is our motivation for writing this article. Debate is an incredible activity and we deeply believe that you should take advantage of this golden opportunity. Joining our club is a simple yet excellent place to start if you are looking for an extracurricular, want to learn more about debate, or are looking for an outlet to argue effectively!
Success of the Alsion Debate Team
The goal in a high-school debater’s career is to attend the Tournament of Champions (TOC), the most prestigious national high school speech and debate tournament held annually at the University of Kentucky. In our first semester competing in varsity, we qualified for the TOCs by receiving two “bids,” which essentially means advancing far enough in a notable tournament. The Director of debate at notable debate school Glenbrook North High School said in 2015 that “for both Public Forum and Policy debate, about 68 to 72 teams out of thousands qualify for the TOC every year.” To qualify so early in the year as a sophomore, is no small feat considering that the majority of juniors and seniors across the country do not even qualify.
Our goal is not to brag, but to instead encourage you to consider joining our club. The unique benefit of the school team is that we are allowed to qualify for and attend tournaments such as the TOCs as the majority of well-regarded tournaments only allow school-affiliated teams to compete. Reaching that level of success in any activity exhibits passion and shows that your hard work has paid off. Therefore, joining the school team can help those interested in the activity and committed to trying their best to reach a higher level of debate such as this and help change their perspective on what debate really is. It is an art form that extends far beyond daily argument.