{"id":44608,"date":"2016-10-26T16:47:03","date_gmt":"2016-10-26T21:47:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=44608"},"modified":"2016-10-26T16:47:03","modified_gmt":"2016-10-26T21:47:03","slug":"chicago-high-school-debaters-take-on-the-most-important-things-in-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/chicago-high-school-debaters-take-on-the-most-important-things-in-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago high school debaters take on the ‘most important things in the world’"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Emily Olsen<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s late on a Friday evening, but the cafeteria at the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences is packed, filled with students chatting, eating pizza and prepping for their first debate tournament of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was nervous for the first bit, but I think it was actually a really great experience for me,\u201d said Williams, who just completed his first round with partner Moriah Warner. He was relieved to get this first round out of the way, but ready for more.<\/p>\n

\"Competitors
Competitors gather in the cafeteria at the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences before the first debate tournament of the year. (Emily Olsen\/MEDILL)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He and Warner, both freshmen at King College Prep, are two of more than 13,000 students who have competed in the Chicago Debate League since it began in 1997. Today, they claim to be the largest urban debate league<\/a> in the country.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to do it every day because we want to be one of those teams that travel everywhere,\u201d said Warner of the team that travels across the city, to the suburbs, and even San Francisco.<\/p>\n

Debate works like this: One team presents their case to change a U.S. public policy, then their opponents argue why those changes are bad ideas, possibly providing their own plans. Each side has the chance to cross-examine their opponents and respond to each others\u2019 ideas. Students write speeches in advance to polish their arguments and to be prepared for pushback.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since 1997, the league has expanded from just five schools to 72, with around 1,400 students competing each year. The league runs tournaments for both high school students and middle schoolers, sometimes three separate competitions a weekend.<\/p>\n

In a district made up mostly of minority students<\/a>, many of whom are considered low-income, David Song, Chicago Debate Commission program director, said the practice allows them to form their own opinions and consider how their identity impacts their beliefs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a chance for people who are not from privilege to get confident with saying \u2018I\u2019m as smart as or smarter than the most privileged in our city,\u2019\u201d Song said.<\/p>\n

\"Amado
Amado Candelario from Solorio Academy (left) and Trevon Muhammad from Lindblom Math and Science Academy (right) during cross-examination. (Emily Olsen\/MEDILL)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kids don\u2019t always recognize it, but they\u2019re learning important skills at these tournaments, according to Edie Canter, the commission\u2019s executive director.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact is in much of the business world, in the sciences, in kind of everything you do, you\u2019re making decisions on evidence and facts,\u201d Canter said. \u201cIn school, you learn facts, but you don\u2019t learn how to make decisions, you don\u2019t learn how to analyze them, except in debate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those debate skills make it back to the classroom, too. According to a study published in the Journal of Adolescence, CPS debaters were about three times<\/a> more likely to graduate from high school on time.<\/p>\n

African-American boys who debate are nearly three times<\/a> less likely to drop out of high school and twice as likely to reach the college-readiness benchmark on the English section of the ACT, according to the Journal of Negro Education.<\/p>\n

Students debate real-life policy issues, too. During this entire season, for example, they\u2019re discussing whether the United States should increase diplomatic relations with China.<\/p>\n

And many debate at breakneck speed, so fast the untrained ear couldn\u2019t understand, trying to get as much information possible into their eight-minute speeches. They send around full scripts of their speeches to their competitors and judges so they can follow along.<\/p>\n