Debate 101

Many of us have a lot to say - ideas to be shared, newly-acquired information to be boasted and opinions to be aired. Human beings that we are, we are bound to reason, argue and debate. And most of the time, debating becomes heated; exchange of words becomes personal and we find ourselves fighting even with those who were once our friends.But debating need not have a sad ending. Friendships need not be broken. Debating can actually turn out to be a fun activity which provides learning and meaningful entertainment to the audience.\

Like every activity, formal debating has a history. It was patterned after the sessions conducted by the parliament during the time when men still wore wigs. The basic idea is that one side, the government, proposes for a certain thing; while another side, the opposition, firmly opposes. These elements are present whatever format of debating is applied - whether Asian Parliamentary, British Parliamentary or Oregon-Oxford.

Many high schools and colleges in the country have debate organizations that provide venues for students to develop their debating skills. There are also debate competitions in school, local, regional, national and international levels.

In debating, you don't get to choose which side you will defend. It doesn't matter very much what your personal view is. The motion will be given and a coin will be tossed to identify whether you get to be in the government side or in the opposition. So the real test for the debaters is how to defend the 'cause' of the side which had been assigned to them.

In a competition I participated in during my freshman year in college, my team (composed of three female all-first-year students) was given the motion, 'Priests be allowed to marry' and we were on the government side. All three of us personally do not approve of such proposal. But hey, we couldn't say that to them, especially to our opponents.

For the whole duration of the debate, we had to forget our beliefs and principles. We concentrated on defending our contention that priests, like all other men, must be given the chance to marry should they choose to. We won the match and afterwards, when we were away from everyone else and were feeling proud of our accomplishment, we provided counter-arguments and rebuttals to all the untrashed arguments we gave earlier.

You see, debating is about reasoning; influencing others to believe in you through the arguments that you give, which of course must be supported by evidence.

Debating also tests one's character. In a debate match on my senior year in college, where we were given the motion, 'Federalism must be applied in the Philippines ', a debater from the opposition side said, 'We cannot change our system of government because it is part of our tradition. Taking the B'laans as example, they don’t know anything about Federalism. They are ignorant of the law and because they are in the mountains, they will never understand the change in the system.'

That is an insensitive remark. Taken that B'laans do not know anything about Federalism and how it works, are we helping them by openly mocking them and by telling the world of what they do not know of? Wouldn't we be of more help if we find means to reach out to them and educate them so that they could also form opinions about the subject, thus, they can take part in decision-making. The opposition side could still have defended their contention without demeaning people/races. Debaters need not compromise their values for the sake of argumentation.

As a debater, I have learned that the best arguments are those which are grounded on values and sound principles. Even though I may personally not support the contention of the side assigned to me, it is still possible that I could give meaningful arguments and supporting statements because there are always two sides in a story. There is nothing totally absolute in this world and debating is a venue to find out which side is more necessary, beneficial and practicable.

Debating is a sport; where at the end of the game, a certain team will emerge victorious over another. And like all team sports, there are players who play better than most. If a "most valuable player" is named at the end of a basketball game, a "best debater" is declared at the end of a debate match.But no matter how good a debater may be, that is never an assurance that his/her team will win. It will always go back to how good the debaters are as a team and not as individual players.

After winning many debate tournaments and losing in some, I learned that the greatest reward is not a trophy and a best debater award, but the learnings and the experiences gained in the debate.

Debating is a venue to develop critical thinking skills because a debater does not accept things at face value. Debating develops both speaking and listening skills because you cannot refute the claims of the opposing team if you did not listen. In debating, we learn to become tolerant of different opinions. We cannot expect everyone to always believe in the same things we believe in. All these skills are also very useful to students in their recitation, essays and other school works. They will also be better-prepared for their jobs after graduation.

Through debating, we are building a society that is well-informed. We can practice democracy better because we can take sides in many issues. Debaters also have a great power to influence others to speak up.