Anticipation rises for sophomore debates

May 10, 2016

There are many aspects to the debate process. Students have been working around the clock to perfect their speeches. Sophomore Calliope Osborn works on timing her constructive speech to fit the strict four minute time limit.

For the past month, the entire sophomore class has been preparing for the All Class Debates that are scheduled to take place May 16-20.

In class, sophomores learned about constructive speeches, rebuttals, cross examination and public speaking skills. All these elements come together the week of May 9-13 when students in groups of three or four will face off in class.

Sophomore Gabby Yun said, “Debates are fun and challenging. You really need to stay on top of things or else your team won’t be as strong as it could be.”

This year, the students will be discussing the policies of the One2One technology program that will be instituted at SHS for the 2016-2017 school year.

Sophomore Nikhil Sekar said, “By doing the debate I have learned about the process of constructing an argument, finding credible and recent sources and using persuasive techniques to make a point.

Additionally, the debate gives students opportunities to practice real life skills that are directly applicable to work students may have to do in the future.

Sophomore Stephanie Hong said, “Teamwork is a critical aspect of debate, we didn’t get to chose our teams so we have to learn to adapt to each person in a group and find a way to work with them.”

“Learning to debate has been a challenging process since we have mostly had to figure it out on our own, but through experimentation and trials I was able to come up with a strategy that works for me.”