Timothy O’Donnell, the Director of Debate at the University of Mary Washington, has written a fascinating essay about why The Great Debaters demonstrates the need to expand debate education in America. Here is just a snippet:
A few years ago, John E. Sexton, president of New York University, said that his four years in high school debate “were the educational foundation of everything I did.” “I’m saying the finest education I got from any of the institutions I attended, the foundation of my mind that I got during those four years of competitive policy debate; that is, 90 percent of the intellectual capacity that I operate with today — Fordham [University] for college, Fordham for the Ph.D., Harvard for law school — all of that is the other 10 percent.” But debate skills are not reserved only for exceptional students like Farmer and Sexton. All students should have the benefits of a debate education.
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stevens 01.07.08 at 6:30 pm
Maya Angelou’s, wrote in “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” that Mrs. Flowers, a local intellecutual “threw her her first life line.” My debate coach did that to me. He wasn’t a good coach or great teacher, but he exposed me to policy debate in 1974! It saved my life in many ways, and I never get away from it.
Debate should be mandatory in all schools. Maybe the Great Debaters will bring it back.