Ready Set Debate

At a typical club meeting, members compete in two debates and receive personalized feedback from their coach, who runs the meeting. Meetings sometimes also include speech and debate drills, shorter debates called “spar debates,” analyses of previous debates, short lectures on debate concepts and strategy, and more!

Our clubs meet online, twice per month, between September and May. Meetings are two hours each. Some homework may be assigned to help reinforce debate concepts, and at-home preparation for debates is expected. For the average student, this adds up to a total monthly time commitment of under ten hours (including meetings) although some students choose to invest more time in preparing for debates. 

Rather than focusing on an existing format of debate, we took the main concepts of debate and distilled them into our own format, which features smart and simple steps that can be applied to any other format. Students who wish to practice debating in other formats may work with their coach to schedule practice debates in these formats.

All kinds! In recent semesters, our students have debated everything from the moral permissibility of pineapple on pizza to the most efficient way to address the Medicaid “coverage gap.” Topics are often suggested by students, and are always vetted by coaches to ensure age-appropriateness. 

Our coaches are drawn from a pool of current and former college debaters. Most of our clubs are managed by Price Morgan, who has participated in speech and debate programs since 2008, and who holds several college debate championship titles.