What’s in there for me?

No one ever takes notice of Janis Waller. She has a rugged face of pimples and her teeth are crooked. She is obese and her movements are like that of a clumsy penguin. However, once on stage, transformation takes place. Her eyes sparkle and she is filled with passion. The cogency of her arguments fascinate the audience. This is what debating gives us, words like fire and tongues likes swords.

Debating allows us to develop poise and confidence in expressing our attitudes and opinions about a subject. We are, in fact, developing skills in the use of language that will serve us well throughout our lives.

Through debates, we learn how to think for ourselves, and how to think on our feet to respond immediately when challenged in a fair-minded discussion. In addition, we use evidence to prove our point of view. We deal with facts and evidence, not emotions.

What you gain:

Personal enjoyment

Competitive debating is stimulating and thrilling. Debaters have great fun matching wits with their opponents

Memorable language

Due to the time limit, debaters need to use as few words as possible to express their ideas. As a result, debating can inspire us to use clear, concise and memorable language

Thinking clearly

Thorough preparation is one factor which leads to successful debating. Debaters need to examine a question critically from both affirmative and negative points of view. Debaters need to sift the relevant arguments from the irrelevant. This gives them superb training and experience in judging the reasonableness and relative importance of arguments and evidence

Most important of all, debating makes us more empathetic and tolerant of ideas different from our own. We learn to respect the opinions of our opponents.

Moreover, in competitive debates, there are only two end results—we either win or we lose. However, it is precisely the losses that provide us with the best learning experiences. In order to improve, debaters never view losses as humiliation or a bad decision made by a crazy judge, but rather, as a new lesson.