Debate
Debate is a formalized system of logical argumentation. A debate is a rule-governed contest presided by an official, consisting of two or more sides where each side is attempting to win the approval of a designated audience, such as a judge or jury. Debate has become a highly organized activity with National and International organizations.
Debate in Education
Many North American colleges and high schools field teams that participate in competitive debate.
Parliamentary Debate
"Parli" is conducted under rules derived from British parlimentary procedure. It features the competition of individuals in a multi-person setting. It borrows terms such as "government" and "opposition" from the British parliament. It is commonly used in Canada.
Parliamentary Debating in Canada uses the following positions:
- Government
- Prime Minister (speaks first, and last 7 and 3 minutes respectively)
- Minister of the Crown (speaks third for 7 minutes)
- Opposition
- Minister of the Opposition (speaks second for 7 minutes)
- Leader of the Opposition (speaks fourth for 10 minutes)
Some tournaments allow Points of Information, where an opposing team member may stand up and ask a question to the member who is debating.
On the East Coast of the U.S., the standards body is the American Parliamentary Debate Organization. Nationally, the National Parliamentary Debate Association is the largest collegate sponsor. Parliamentary debate is very popular in collegate competition, and has begun expanding on high school circuits. There is currently no national sponsor for High School Parli debate in the US.
Simulated Legislature
Other high school debate events such as Student Congress, Model UN, and the American Legion's Boys State and Girls State events are activities which are based on the premis of the contestants acting as representatives in a mock legislative body.
Mock Court
Mock Court or Moot court is expanding across the US as a high school activity.
Lincoln-Douglas Debate
Lincoln-Douglas Debate (named after the famous series of Senate debates between the two candidates) has two participants who argue against each other. The arguments center around philosophy, and thus it is also called Value Debate. High school LD competition is typically conducted under the rules of the National Forensic League or the National Catholic Forensic League.
Policy Debate
The other form is Policy Debate. In this event, two teams of two students argue over a topic using predominantly facts and data. High school policy is also overseen by the NFL and the CFL. Collegate policy debate is overseen by the National Debate Tournament or the Cross Examination Debate Association.
The expansion of Mock Court and Parli have come at the cost of the shrinking of participation in LD and Policy Debate in High School competition since 1995.
Debate Tournaments
High school debate tournaments are held often every week during the season. Regional tournamnents, often held in high schools, attract other local teams. Major tournaments (such as Harvard's) attract students from the national circuit. The NFL national championships attracts debaters from all over the country as well as from overseas including Panama Canal Zone, American Samoa and Guam.
Collegiate parlimentary debate tournaments are held weekly during the season (which typically runs from the fall until the early spring). Some leagues (APDA and NEDA for instance) host championship tournaments at the end of the season.
External links
- Carleton University Debating Society - an example of a University debating club
- National Forensic League - the U.S. standards body for high school speech and debate; sponsors yearly national championships
- National Association of Urban Debate Leagues - debate league for urban schools
- Chicago Debate League - one major urban debate city
- American Parlimentary Debate Organization, or APDA, is the major debate league for Eastern U.S. colleges
- National Parliamentary Debate Association NPDA is the host of the largest season-ending debate tournament and sponsor of debate across the US and Canada.
- Charles University Debate Club Europe's perception of debate can be best seen at the website of the oldest Central European university's debate club.