Alessandro van den Brink | Room for debate

Small Talk | The case for teaching debate, even in college

By Alessandro van den Brink 01/20/16 11:29pm

Since middle school, every student has been taught just about all there is to know about crafting an argument. While different teachers have different styles, there is almost a unanimous model of the standard essay: three to four body paragraphs, an introduction and a conclusion with a firm thesis and supporting evidence. Schools are obliged to teach their students how to write convincing and intriguing arguments, but classes that teach students how to debate verbally, rather than just on paper, are rarely offered.

While I can’t speak for many of the students at Penn, my high school did not offer any courses specifically focused on debate. Yes, the occasional seminar-styled debate would occur in English or history classes, but the only way one could learn proper rhetorical strategies seemed to be in the extracurricular clubs such as Model United Nations, Model Congress and, of course, the debate team. Because of this, many of my classmates in high school — myself included — were able to write pinpoint essays but couldn’t even dream of maintaining a civil and professional argument with one another, whether it be about politics, science, music or anything in between.

Penn offers Critical Speaking Seminars, which are courses that use oral communication assignments instead of written ones. They have an enrollment cap of 16 students per class and, though they aren’t required, they aren’t particularly popular among the general student population.

The Critical Writing Program, on the other hand, is required for all Penn students, and while these courses are very extensive in their coverage of academic writing, there is little to no attention paid to oral debate. I propose that the writing seminar either be reformed to include this aspect, or that some iteration of debate class be required of or more predominantly offered to students.

Sure, it is incredibly important to know how to write professionally and academically, but knowing how to argue in person will have greater effects on most of us than we might think. Debate isn’t something solely used by politicians and lawyers. When interviewing for a job or asking one’s employer for a raise, proper oration and verbal argument skills can make a huge difference. In just about any negotiation or deal, verbal communication takes precedence over writing. Therefore if we are only taught how to argue through the latter, we are at a huge disadvantage in the real world.

Simply look at the effects of oratory skills by presidential candidate Ted Cruz. Regardless of whether you agree with his stances or not, there is no denying that Cruz is an excellent debater who has a commanding voice that can make even absurdities seem rational. Cruz won many awards both at Princeton and Harvard Law and was named National Speaker of the Year, and now his proficiency in debating and speaking has put him on a stage to potentially become the president of this nation.

For the past four months, my roommate and I — being on different political and ideological sides — have engaged in many debates, some on politics, philosophy and even the arts.

What I found is that even though neither of us ever seemed to be able to convince the other to adopt a certain position, we accumulated respect for each other, and more importantly, we became better at debating. The arguments began to evolve from shouting the loudest to genuinely listening to and interpreting opposing viewpoints in a way that promoted an exceptional level of understanding and compromise.

Not all of us at Penn will become lawyers or politicians, but the art of speaking is universal and is simply not taught enough in the average course load. When we think of debate class, we tend to imagine the more competitive nature of the classic debate club structure, but there are many more applications for debating that can easily be glossed over. And of course, one of the major prerequisites for becoming a great speaker is being a superb listener, and if anything, that’s a quality we could certainly benefit from.

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