Sitting in a crowded room with kids raising their hands, as if they’re reaching out for a helping hand. Your hand, so high up you feel as if you could touch the sky, but suddenly it lowers as a finger points at you. Suddenly the Presiding Officer (P.O.) booms, “Representative, you have the floor.”
Debate is a fun after school activity many indulge in. The middle school debate team takes part in a faction of debate, Student Congress. 20 to 25 people sit in a room with a Parliamentarian, P.O and a scorer. When chosen by the P.O. (an elected student or chosen adult) a representative must stand and give a speech on the chosen topics that is less than three minutes.
Abigail Kaye (‘27) has enjoyed debate for a long time. “I started loving debate in the second semester of seventh grade because that’s when I took debate and from that first day in class I’ve always kind of loved it,” she said.
For Kaye (‘27) winning in debate is her favorite part of the experience but the environment is lovable, from Kaye’s (‘27) point of view. “Winning. And just the environment of like, the tournaments and stuff. It’s just really fun! We’re just sitting around with our friends and cheering them on,” she said. Extremely excited for the upcoming UMKC championship debate, Kaye (‘27) exclaimed, “I am going to City Champs and I’m going to beat everyone!”
This year’s topics are Medicare for all, Rehab Over Prison, Surveillance advertising and a number of other topics including those about NATO, like a case about the USA withdrawing from NATO. “My favorite topic… probably the NATO withdrawal topic. I find it so nuanced and interesting, like, it’s quite, like, fun to think about. My least favorite? Ban surveillance advertising…or 5G,” said Kaye (‘27).
On the other hand, some have differing opinions about debate. “I like writing speeches, gathering information, and making an argument,” Anya Reddy (‘28) said. “ [My least favorite part is] giving the speeches,” she said. Reddy (‘28) prefers writing more than delivering the masterful speeches she creates. “[If I could change one thing about debate then] I could write the speech and then I could hire someone else to deliver it for me,” Reddy (‘28) explained.
Leo Karaichev’s (‘27) story about his reason for loving debate is riveting, to say the least. “All my friends were doing it, and peer pressure because 99.9% of our Chinese class was doing it,” he said jokingly. Others may have competitive motives but Leo Karaichev (‘27), is in it for the food. “We get free food and we get to skip class, obviously. Yeah, [that’s] somewhat [why I do debate],” Karaichev (‘27) said.
Karaichev (‘27) also loves debate’s atmosphere and all the friends he has in it. “[I love] being loud and obnoxious with Wes and Carter. Roland would probably describe [The environment] as chaotic, but in my opinion, it’s like, I was born in chaos, you know. You merely adopted the darkness! I was born in the dark! I was molded by the dark,” he exclaimed.
“Funny story, so I actually joined debate because I was interested in it and my parents pitched me the idea. I thought it was really cool so I joined. First day of class, I hated it. I wanted to drop out after two weeks. But I was like, you know what, I’ll stay, I’ll give it a shot. And I stayed and it was probably one of the best decisions I’ve ever [made],” Rania Ahsan (‘27) said as she retold her tale.
The environment in debate is like no other. A fun, lighthearted mood mixed with a drive to win is what fuels most debaters to do their very best. Debate can show you other perspectives of the world that you’ve never even thought of! And these debaters know plenty about that.
