Dare To Debate

    In high school I picked debate as an elective. I knew a bit about the whole culture of debating because my sister-in-law taught debate in a high school across town. She had invited me to some debate tournaments as an observer. I was attracted to the smart people I met in that arena. I wanted to be smart enough to win an argument in front of a judge.

   Luckily I was paired with a very intelligent girl named Beth. She read Time Magazine, US News and World Report, and The Congressional Record for fun. I skimmed them to find enough quotes to support the arguments we were currently using in competition. While I learned to speak persuasively, she provided the underlying structure of facts.

  Three years of high school debate provided many intellectual skills like outlining a subject to bring out the key components, understanding the logic of an argument, and thinking quickly in the moment. On the downside, debate forced me into defending two sides with equal prowess. I could speak with real resolve that Congress should prohibit unilateral military intervention into foreign countries and then the next hour make the opposite claim that military intervention needed to be available to The President to stabilize a government which presented a threat to the United States without Congressional approval.  

        Being able to argue both sides of an issue wasn't always a way to find truth.

   I had a glimmer of light testify to me that in reality I needed a way to actually know what was true. Rather than being able to argue about an issue simply to win I need to simplify to eliminate the unnecessary facts so that the necessary could rise to the surface and speak loud enough for me to hear.

Learning to debate provided me access to deeper learning but it also revealed a more important goal of finding a closer pathway to truth. 

Click here to go back to the index page of 31 Days of Writing In October.