鶹ý is the only school in New York City where Debate is part of its core curriculum beginning in Kindergarten and continuing through Eighth Grade.
To listen to someone else’s point of view and to entertain thoughts that are contrary to one’s own beliefs is the cornerstone of empathy. This is the heart of 鶹ý’s Debate curriculum: helping students to be empathetic citizens of the world.
Debate seeks to draw students into a fuller understanding of controversial topics and also to have them be able to present this understanding in an articulate and passionate way. In order to accomplish this, Debate progresses through a wide variety of skill sets that is built upon from grade to grade, forming a foundation for our students. From a formal public speaking focus in Lower School to original oratory and negotiation in Middle School, 鶹ý’s Speech and Debate curriculum takes the students’ knowledge and skills to the next level each year, ultimately culminating in our students comfortable with arguing three types of debate (Parliamentary, Congressional, and Public Forum), as well as tackling ethical dilemmas and challenges.
Debate is taught once per six-day cycle in Kindergarten and First Grade and twice per six-day cycle for Second through Eighth Grade.
Debate in the Lower School begins the introduction of public speaking skills. Our Debate teachers work with our youngest students to help them become comfortable with expressing themselves as well as being comfortable receiving feedback (both positive and negative). The goal is for the student to not feel negative feedback is personal but instead the same kind of feedback you would receive in Math or other content areas. They use tongue-twisters, improv games, and theatre activities — all with the objective to put students “on the spot.” The goal is to have them become confident when public speaking before they realize that it could make them nervous.
As the students move through the grades in Lower School, there is more of a formal public speaking emphasis, with many of their Debate assignments tied to what they are studying in other subject areas or familiar topics and they begin to incorporate writing skills to analyze questions and craft speeches. Some of these have included preparing arguments and speeches as they “rewrite the Constitution” in a mock Constitutional Convention during their “From Colonies to Country” unit or debating whether Goldilocks deserves punishment in a mock trial court.
By Fourth Grade, students begin to use their skills to compose organized arguments to defend both sides of a resolution and practice Parliamentary Debate. Ranging from “Resolved: Video games do more harm than good” to “Resolved: The United States should ban single-use plastic bags”, students produce compelling arguments for both sides of given resolutions, developing their research, rhetoric, and public speaking skills.
In Fifth and Sixth Grade, students begin to grasp the essentials of oral storytelling and how to engage an audience. Core elements of public speaking such as poise, voice, life, eye contact, gesture, and speed are introduced and practiced. In addition, the students continued to broaden and deepen their public speaking and debate skills. Our Parliamentary debate rounds saw students working in teams to debate the motion: “National Service should be Mandatory in the United States”. The students researched the topic, formulated and presented arguments for their side of the debate, and anticipated rebuttals and questions. When not actively debating, students served as adjudicators, carefully listening to and taking notes on arguments before submitting reasoned decisions. Students are also challenged to apply the negotiation skills by stepping into the shoes of a member of Congress. They chose a bill from the National Speech and Debate Association’s Congressional Legislation Docket and advocated for its passage into law. The congressional debate format emphasizes persuasive speaking, polished presentation and rigorous argumentation.
The Speech and Debate curriculum in Seventh Grade is centered around evidentiary practices in the development of arguments. Seventh Grade debaters demonstrated their capacity to understand and utilize their evidence through a series of debates, both as a whole group, and individually in mini-rounds. Topics discussed and debated in Seventh Grade Debate have included border surveillance, Taiwan policy, hegemony and Great Power Competition, innate morality, and artificial intelligence. They conclude the year focused on oracy. Students are invited to nominate “great speeches” and they analyze some of the most mentioned examples, considering what devices and methods were most effective to deliver a clear message and how the speakers were able to create a lasting effect on an audience.
Our Eighth Grade debaters engage with a range of ethical challenges. From debates over the morality of civil disobedience in democracies to the legal personhood of AI, non-human animals, and natural resources, the students refine their research skills in creating robust cases and rebuttal arguments as they are challenged to consider stakeholders in emerging ethical dilemmas, producing arguments that directly respond to opponents, and factoring a variety of perspectives into their arguments, considering the importance of theoretical and practical implications. As they end their time at 鶹ý, the students analyze controversies within frameworks of consequentialist, rules-based, and virtue ethics, discussing and debating scenarios ranging from science fiction and animal rights to the latest Supreme Court cases and the Communications Decency Act’s protection of online publishers. Topics such as these help them apply concepts of utilitarianism and deontology to real world situations. As a culminating project, the students write an original speech on a topic of their choice for our “very public speaking” event, often delivered in Central Park to the public at large.
All students can participate in Debate outside of the classroom in various extracurricular opportunities. In Middle School, the 鶹ý Debate Team meets twice a week after school and attends tournaments on the weekend. Students research and prepare both for and against topics assigned by the New York Debate League. Some topics from previous seasons include: “Credit cards do more harm than good”, “Schools should not give grades”, and “We prefer a world where artificial intelligence is smarter than humans.” Despite going against much larger schools at these competitions, 鶹ý has an impressive track record of wins, including many top Overall School Awards and top individual speaker awards, and is considered one of the top Debate team programs in the state.
