Erynn Du / Staff Reporter
Students who want to practice the art of skillful arguments can attend the debate club meetings after school ever Thursday. It’s a space where club leaders Mel Baird, and David Li, both grade 12, lead practices for debate and students can collaborate writing speeches and doing drills.
The typical debate club session starts off with proposition creating a proposal, and the opposition countering the created motion. Students have a lot of variety with each motion and must be creative in order to counter for their side. “I think my favourite motion so far has been, ‘the proposition’ to keep all zombies in the world in government encampments throughout the world.’ Crazy motions like these opens the mind to creativity and a little bit of silliness in the exploration of the hypothetical,” said Caryl Szeto, grade 10.
The club is a mix of students from all grade levels, and has a large number of grade 9’s. Every Thursday, debate club has around 15 members who show up regularly to the meeting. Some have continued their debating interests from middle school. Szeto says, “I joined debate club because of a positive experience in grade 8. I enjoyed a class debate so much, that I decided to join debate club in grade 9 with a good friend of mine. I had a lot of fun in grade 9, because the club was flexible, relaxed, but also allowed us to learn something new every week.”
“A place for lovely discussion as well as structured debates for students serious about competing,” is what Baird, club co-leader says when asked about her vision for debate club. “We try to make [the environment] as supportive as possible, considering this is a space where people share their opinions, it needs to be.” Other students agree and enjoy the learning environment debate club provides. “For me, debate club has helped improved my communication and improv skills,” says Dylan Zhang, grade 11.
Debate club is open to all students who want to participate in a weekly discussion. “Learning how to debate within two main formats, CNDF [Canadian Nation Debate Format], and BP [British Parliamentary Format]. Debate club prepares students for debate competitions and general life situations regarding argumentation,” is what Baird says when asked to summarize about debate club. If interested, students are encouraged to stop by at room 123 afterschool on Thursdays.