So coaches focus on research skills as well as teaching the foreign language of argumentation. The league teaches the most difficult form of debate, policy debate, which draws on fields like history, politics, economics and science. Policy debaters nationwide focus on a different topic each year. But for those who stay, the payoffs are many. Socially, they say they are more confident, and many find themselves resolving personal conflicts through logic and argument rather than force.
Debate helps with schoolwork, too.
I got a 91 on my report card in English, and I'm not that good at it. Ms. Wade credits the Internet with opening debate to less affluent students who can now do the needed research. By senior year, many urban debaters are hotly pursued by universities. League debaters are not the only beneficiaries. When tournaments and camps throw together the affluent with less affluent, both sides learn, Ms. Wade said.