What is Debate?
Extramural debate competitions are a combination of three important skills:
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Effective Communication
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The Study of Logic
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The Art of Persuasion
By creating an efficient practice system that provides as much one-on-one work between an educator and student as possible, Debate Tournaments provides efficient practice opportunities that help students thrive.
Effective Communication
We live in a world that is socially distant, while simultaneously struggling to unite together. We don't know what the world will look like ten years from now, and that makes it difficult to figure out how to best prepare our kids for it. Traditional forms of education that attempt to prepare students for careers in business are becoming increasingly devalued, and various professions increasingly describe effective communication as a central soft skill that students need in order to succeed.
The Study of Logic
To study debate is to study logic itself. To be a good debater is to be a logical, yet persuasive person.
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How do we figure out whether a belief we have makes sense?
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What does it mean for an argument to be logical?
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Why is it important for a claim to be falsifiable?
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Are my fears rational?
These are questions that every adult has to answer constantly throughout their day. By breaking down for students as young as 11 years old in a concise, practicable formula, Telegraph Speech and Debate teaches the critical thinking and problem-solving skills that are necessary for a kid to become a thriving, resilient adult.
The Art of Persuasion
The truth is useless if you can't get others to understand it. When kids enter Middle School, many of them have the seedlings of ideas that would one day change the world. Persuasion is about teaching the world to comprehend our ideas, to grasp their importance, and to motivate people to act on them.
Life teaches us that we are constantly being scrutinized. From job interviews, to communicating with strangers, we constantly have to stand up and advocate for ourselves. Telegraph Speech and Debate breaks these skills down into:
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Assertiveness
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Conciseness
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Syntax
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Inflection
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Verbal emphasis
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Hand Gestures
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Facial Expressions
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Enthusiasm
Through a rigorously tailored, fine-tuned curriculum, Telegraph is able to break these skills down into learnable tasks.
Efficient Practice through Tournaments
A Lincoln-Douglas Debate round is a 1-vs-1 debate format. Students are judged purely on their own skills, not the skills of a debate partner. By giving each student 13 minutes of speaking time, 13 minutes of critical listening, 6 minutes of cross-examination, and individually tailored feedback provided by a qualified judge, debate tournaments jam-pack as much learning as possible into efficient periods of time.