I spent Friday and Saturday judging the South Dakota State Debate Tournament. If my count is correct, it may have been my twentieth time judging the smartest, most articulate high school students in South Dakota. The young people I judged this weekend reaffirmed my commitment to debatocracy, rule by people who did high school debate.
Debate also happens to be part of why the students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School are making an immediate difference in public discourse about America’s unhealthy obsession with guns that distinguishes them from any previous set of school-shooting victims. The nationwide November Public Forum debate topic was, “Resolved: The United States should require universal background checks for all gun sales and transfers of ownership.” Marjory Stoneman Douglas debaters and debaters at every other high school in the Broward County school district tackled that topic last fall, and they still have their notes:
The debate program has certainly helped prepare David Hogg, a senior at Stoneman Douglas who has appeared on nearly every major network and cable news program over the past week.
“It’s been immensely helpful because I’ve been able to speak articulately about these current events,” Hogg said Wednesday evening on his way to a CNN town hall at the BB&T Center in Sunrise. With no time to prepare any new arguments in recent days, Hogg said he’s relied on the research he conducted in debate class last fall.
Hogg said he joined Stoneman Douglas’ debate program on a whim in ninth grade. At the high school, debate is both a class and an after-school activity. Roughly 80 percent of the 150 students who take the class also participate in competitions, which means they spend time preparing for debates in the afternoons and on weekends.
Although Hogg said he’s not a star on the team, he enjoys arguing about current events. “I’ve never won a single debate tournament, even come in 10th place,” he said. “I guess it shows you don’t have to be great at something to make an impact.”
Sophomore Sari Kaufman has also used her debate training to advocate for stricter gun control policies. On Sunday, the 15-year-old Stoneman Douglas student wrote a letter to lawmakers, which was grounded in her debate class research, that has been shared hundreds of times on social media. Kaufman also brought her debate notes on a trip to Tallahassee earlier this week to meet with lawmakers.
“I don’t think we made a huge change, but we definitely moved the needle a little more than it was before,” she said [Kyra Gurney, “Last Fall, They Debated Gun Control in Class. Now, They Debate Lawmakers on TV,” Miami Herald, updated 2018.02.25].
The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School debate program is part of the school’s broader commitment to rigorous liberal arts education that includes drama, journalism, and AP Government and Politics.
Only a couple dozen South Dakota high schools compete in extra-curricular debate. If we want South Dakota kids to be as “spring-loaded for citizenship” as their peers in Parkland, we need every school to promote debate and the liberal arts.
“Be a nuisance where it counts. Do your part to inform and stimulate the public to join your action. Be depressed, discouraged, and disappointed at failure and the disheartening effects of ignorance, greed, corruption and bad politics –
but never give up”.
Marjory Stoneman Douglas
Yes. Thanks for your advocacy for debate in high school. It is an incredibly important program.