Our Executive Director, John Tao, recently had an “off the cuff” with the Shepherd Express.
“I think debate has been an important skill for all students to learn, but, especially in today’s climate, there is a lot of misinformation out there that is being shared on social media and through news venues, and it’s hard sometimes to determine what the facts are.
One of the forms of debate we use is called “policy debate;” it teaches our students how to grapple with real-world current events, take articles and determine how you can tell whether something is true through the practice of debate.
Having the students engage in contemporary issues has the students ground their own lives, so, for example, next year, we will be debating immigration, which obviously is one of the main focuses of the Donald Trump administration, so there should be some interesting critical analysis from students on what to do with information that’s presented.”
Make sure to check out the article and learn more about the importance of debate.
