A New Team on Campus
Written in Collaboration with Derek Bowley, Speech and Drama Teacher
Congressional School proudly offers speech and drama as part of its middle school curriculum under the expert guidance of Derek Bowley, who started the program nearly a decade ago. Now, Derek is expanding its scope with a newly formed Congressional School Debate Team.
The Debate Team launched this fall with 15 students in grades 6–8 who regularly attend practices and meetings. The vision of the team is to provide an opportunity for students to think deeply, increase their skill and confidence in public speaking, and demonstrate our Core Values.
There are five debate tournaments the team is slated to participate in with topics announced four weeks in advance. “We meet a couple times a week for the first few weeks, and then daily during the week of the tournament,” states Mr. Bowley. “Students also put in extra time doing research and discussing arguments in preparation.”
“Debate is not a passive activity, it’s mental exercise,” states Mr. Bowley. “Debaters must be prepared to argue both sides of the announced topics. In order to successfully debate both the proposition side and the opposition side of a topic, students must do some deep thinking about that topic in advance. This thinking leads to research, fact finding, discussion, and more thinking. Debaters take all of this, formulate a framework, and develop contentions to support the framework. Debaters need to build out their contentions with anecdotes, evidence, and logical arguments for why their case is stronger than the other team’s case.”
Since launching, the debate team has gained momentum with each tournament. Practice can be a juggling act between athletic schedules, musical rehearsal, and all the other activities both the students and Mr. Bowley have on their plates, but the team is working hard, gaining valuable experience, and developing critical skills that will pay dividends for years to come.
The vision of our debate team is to provide an opportunity for students to think deeply, increase their skill and confidence in public speaking, and demonstrate our Core Values.
Derek Bowley
Speech and Drama Teacher
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