The Adults of Tomorrow

It didn't really matter what she was arguing for, just the fact that she had to go through the exercise of researching a topic. Then, organizing her thoughts into an argument, writing the argument out, and presenting the argument in class, validated by the very research she did about the subject. That's a lot for adults to pull off, even when their jobs depend on it; presenting in front of people is a stressful and difficult activity. It's also a lot for 8th graders who have only just begun their critical thinking journey. 

Our 8th grader, Beatrice, had to do a project like this in her history class recently. She researched and wrote up her presentation and practiced presenting to us. We gave her feedback, something she's not always open to at this age, but she listened nonetheless and made adjustments. She practiced a few more times and then dreaded the day in class she'd have to present. She did it, though, angst and all. 

Of course we were proud of her. These critical thinking and presentation skills will serve her well later in school and life. This also introduced her to a controversial topic that can skew rational debate to emotional outrage. They had studied Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989) and whether flag burning constitutes "symbolic speech" protected by the First Amendment. Beatrice was assigned the argument that it was not symbolic speech and therefore should not be protected, and in helping her with the project, we had some interesting young-adult conversations about this very subject. 

While Beatrice may never want to be in debate club in high school (I never was and neither was my wife Amy), I was fortunate to judge a local high school debate competition recently. The topic was genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and there were 5 teams -- 3 were pro GMO and 2 were not. Their teacher told us (the judges) that they picked their pro or con stance and did their research independently of the other teams. It was only after each team shared their opening statements did they know where the other teams stood. I'm not sure if that's standard debate rules or not, but things got interesting when they moved to the rebuttal stage. 

Some emotion did run higher during the rebuttals, but the teams didn't devolve into trash talking haters of each other's viewpoints. Not that we were expecting it during a high school debate because I'm sure their grade depended on the decorum of the debate at each stage. The key was to listen to each other without judgement, but to not hold back either the countering facts of rebuttals that supporting their arguments. Back and forth they went between teams and I was truly immersed in their powerful interaction. When they got to their closing statements, it was going to be a tough decision as a judge to pick a winner. The other judges felt the same way, but in the end we picked a winner and a runner up. 

Some of the high school debate team members were obviously quite nervous, just like our own kids get in today in middle school presenting to their classes (and just like I still get before I speak publicly). From their introductions, to their opening statements, to their rebuttals, and then finally their closing statements, they delivered their best synthesis of their team arguments after weeks of research. I was honored to be a judge, and just like we tell our own children (whether they want to hear it or not), I told them that these critical thinking and presentation skills will serve them well through college and adulthood. Plus, the empathic skills of listening to others and responding in kind without personal judgement and shaming. There's definitely hope for the adults of tomorrow.