The Argument of the Day

 By Zenami Vision,  December 13th, 2023

Our school has numerous after-school clubs and teams, whether it’s basketball, soccer, or student council. These teams help make our school by bringing us together as a community and gather a group of students who enjoy a similar thing, and bond and work together over it. This article’s intention is to bring attention to a team full of passionate students, the one and only debate team! 

The two teachers who monitor our school's team are Mr. Joga, the 8th-grade math teacher and Miss E, the 7th-grade ELA teacher. It consists of about 15 lovely students of all grades with passion for debate, and has room for lots more. In fact, the debate team’s next competition is on April 10th!

A debate is a battle, but with words. It’s set up like any other sport, two teams against each other. Instead of trying to score though, each team is trying to prove to judges that your argument is better than the other team’s. It’s very passionate and requires a lot of thinking and determination, as one has to scour every source of information to find something that supports your claim with your friends. When interviewing Jack Green, an active member of the team, he says, “I like debate. It’s a good thing I can put on my high school resumes, and I have fun doing it. It advances research, public speaking, and quick thinking skills.” When asked about his personal experience on the team, he claimed, “It’s fun to travel with everybody to other schools, and the actual debate feels nerve-wracking.” 

Even for people not actively involved in it, debate is positive. For example, when asked about debate, Nikko Kamhaji in 805 said, “I think the debate team is a great way to test your ability on sharing your opinion and a great way to prove yourself as a competent speaker.” Nikko also believes that, “It’s a great start to a career as a lawyer, it helps keep your thoughts relevant, and a great way to build skill in supporting a statement.” The fun part is that each team represents both sides in two separate rounds, and whoever’s point is more convincing wins. It’s very exciting too, because you never know what topic that’s going to be next! One day teams may be debating space travel, and another you may debate the benefits and cons of zoos. The DOE chooses the topics through a meeting and then announces it to all participating schools.

Debate is very important for real-life skills as well. Firstly, it increases knowledge that varies across many fields and increases being able to find credible sources and conduct more efficient reading.