The Importance of High School Debate

One of the most important educational objectives of high school is to teach critical-thinking skills, and I can think of no class that does this better than strategic debate. Often I have told students that debate is to language arts what calculus is to mathematics. Professor Mike Alien, lead author in a definitive study on debate and critical thinking, lauded debate's promotion of critical-thinking skills. Additionally, researcher Joe Bellon discusses the well-documented correlation between academic achievement and debate participation.

So what happens in the debate classroom and tournament competitions to create such an intense learning laboratory for students? The subject matter of debate is unusually complex and in-depth. Additionally, the activities and skills utilized in prepping for a debate punch the envelope out at the top of Bloom's Taxonomy with students synthesizing and evaluating research. Also, debate performance requires an understanding of specialized argumentation. And the affective education in debate competition is as potent as what occurs in an athletic event.

Each year, debaters must tackle a variety of subject areas, researching current events, government issues, and philosophical ideas. The first year I coached, we spent a year in policy debate digging into databases on the subject of how to improve the health of our oceans. One year we investigated ways to decrease weapons of mass destruction. Another year we looked at privacy rights and how to limit the government's power to search without probable cause.

Debate is an advanced civics and political science class. Debaters must...