July 11, 2011
The best extracurricular activity is debate.
Debate teaches skills that stay with a person for the rest of his life. These include:
1. Comprehensive preparation
2. Thinking fast under pressure
3. Mastery of both sides of a question
4. Forecasting what the opponent will say
5. Focusing on a single issue for eight months
6. Sticking to a timetable
7. Learning how to impress the judges
8. Cooperating with a partner (team debate)
9. Spotting an opponent's weakness
10. Mastering the skill of rhetoric (persuasion)
11. Learning that practice works
12. Competing within a framework of rules
13. Learning not to make excuses for poor performance
14. Memorization
15. Note-taking
16. Recognizing poor documentation in researching
17. Courage under fire
18. Dealing with ever-stronger competition
I don't think there is anything on a high school campus to match debate as a teaching tool.
Debate on college campuses these days seems more geared to technique than content. This is the fate of anything that academia touches. Recognizing this early in life is also important.
High school students waste a lot of time. They are not Asians. They do not do four hours of homework per day.
I think debate is better than homework. It is a far better way of training your mind than reading high school textbooks and working on carefully constructed problems in math -- problems that are not related to industry or science.
Not every student is good enough to get into a debate program, any more than he can make an athletic team. There are fewer slots available. There is probably no junior varsity program. So, debate is for elite students. But if your child has any skills here, you should encourage him.
Public speaking is a second-best program. It is more formal, more geared to a structured performance. To develop this skill is very useful. I did it early: age 16. But the pressure of debate forces a person to improve his skills
rapidly. There is greater pressure to improve.
The only movie I have seen on debating is The Great Debaters.
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