The pen may be mightier than the sword, but competitive debate, it seems, trumps not only the means of violence, but some of its causes.
“It?s really easy for Baltimore City youth to wind up in places that are negative and harmful for them,” said Pam Spiliadis, executive director of the Baltimore Urban Debate League, “and many [debaters] tell us that it has literally saved their lives.”
According to a study at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, students who participate in debate for a year or more are three times less likely to engage in high-risk behaviors and improve their literacy by 25 percent. Furthermore, although only 34.6 percent of Baltimore students graduate from high school, 90 percent of the city?s urban debaters graduate ? and 90 percent go on to college.
“The organization has really been invaluable to me,” said former Debate League member Trnya Smith, a post-graduate education student and Towson University debate scholarship recipient. “It opened so many doors for me, that I don?t know what would have happened had I not started with debate.”
Functioning for 10 years in collaboration with Baltimore City schools and Towson University, Baltimore Urban Debate League now promotes competitive middle and high school policy debate at 60 city schools. It regards it as a meta-treatment for what afflicts urban youth development and inner-city education in the wake of questionable curricula cuts.
“Our goal was not just to make sure that debate programs are back and running in public schools but that debate could really become a tool for education reform,” Spiliadis said. “So within the public schools we began by targeting the most needy schools and, within those schools, targeting the most needy students.”
Toward these ends, the Debate League offers competitive policy debate training to middle and high school students and debate program organization and management to teachers at variously tracked summer workshops. It also provides college access and employment preparation programs to the 1,000 students it grooms each year ? and lately is paying its high school debaters to provide work preparation classes to middle school students.
“If we weren?t making sure that participation in debate was leading to greater opportunities for students in the future, we?d feel that we weren?t a success,” Spiliadis said. “So our staff is dedicated to making sure that [our] debaters have an excellent chance of going on to college and succeeding there.”
1800 N. Charles St., No. 906
Baltimore
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