CMC will co-host 70 middle school debate teams on Saturday, March 27, in the Debate Union Middle Schools Championships, bringing together hundreds of students from throughout Southern California. The event will take place from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. in Bauer Center.
Building on the impressive success story that is the Claremont Debate Union, John Meany, director of forensics, and Kate Shuster, director of debate outreach, teamed up in 2002 to establish a middle schools outreach program, now the largest in the nation. "The program was created from scratch," Shuster explained, "We wanted to create something that would match the educational needs of middle school students with the demands and thrills of elite debate."
Among the structural distinctions between the middle schools program and those for high school and college students: a shorter time limit (26 minutes) for debates, three students per team (instead of the typical two-person unit), and encouragement of what Shuster calls "constructive heckling."
"It resembles the behavior of the British Parliament," she said. "We teach students that, when they're in the audience, it's appropriate to call out hear, hear' or shame!' or to pound on the table to show their approval or disapproval of a point but not to yell out comments or talk over the debaters. They learn that debate is structured and defined it's not like an American news discussion' program or even a presidential debate, which is more a group of campaign stump speeches broken into bite-size chunks."
Not only does the debate program help middle school students develop their research, analytical and public speaking skills, Shuster added, it's also a great confidence-builder and a college recruiting tool. "Overall, the students represent a good cross-section of the community. But for the students from Title I schools in particular, the debate program is a great experience for bright students who haven't had a forum to express their ideas, for those who've been underachievers. It validates their own brainpower far more than taking a standardized test ever will. And at the same time, it grounds them and teaches them structure."
Ironically, Shuster said, some of the best middle school debate participants are what she calls "sass-backs." One middle school teacher, in fact, "hangs out outside his school's discipline office to identify promising debaters. He figures that the kids who are there probably got in trouble because they just had to say something!"
And, Meany added, bringing them to the Claremont Colleges for the championships is a great way to introduce students to college life. "They spend the entire day on campus, moving from classroom to classroom for the five debates they each participate in. They eat two meals here. They see students in the dorms and outside. They start to see that they belong here."
Middle school is the ideal time for that first exposure, Meany said. "It's the last time when students still think it's OK to show that you're smart. If we wait until high school, it can be too late. This program is a great way to acclimate smart kids early to the idea that they can go to college to talk about scholarships and grants and loans, so kids don't keep thinking they have to pay for college themselves, or pay for the whole thing up-front. By enabling middle schoolers to function as citizens of CMC for the day, we show them the world of college. It can truly be a life-changing experience."
Beyond the March 27 championships, the Debate Union is sponsoring a summer residential workshop for middle school debaters this year. And its own members some 100 students from the five Claremont Colleges are equally busy. Hot off their success at the National Championships qualifying event in which two Claremont Debate Union teams participated, and one finished in 8th place among the 48 invited teams, knocking off national powerhouse UC Berkeley to reach the finals they're sending seven debate teams to the Open Invitational Tournament April 8-10 at California State University, Northridge, in which as many as 340 teams from across the U.S will compete.
"Our teams have placed in the top 10 in the qualifying event every year for the past dozen years," Meany said, "and we've won three national championships in the past decade. We compete with colleges that treat debate like an NCAA Division I sport allowing only successful high school debaters onto their teams, redshirting some of them to maintain team strength from year to year, offering debate scholarships. Here, even though our focus is to learn the skills of debate, research and public presentation, our students are tremendously successful."
Also on the calendar: a trip to China by Chinese-speaking members of the Debate Union, for a Chinese government-sponsored event; and a presidential debates project, in which Claremont Debate Union students are producing curriculum materials and planning hundreds of student debates around the U.S. in September and October on the presidential candidates and issues.
For additional information contact Evie Lazzarino, CMC Public Affairs (909) 607-9099, or Kate Shuster, Debate Union (909) 964-1936.