Tour Guide: Introduction to Debate

Learning to debate well is a difficult but valuable life skill! A good debater will allow the other side’s viewpoint to be heard before responding, respect his oppo­nent, listen for truths and fallacies in an argu­ment, and respond quickly. Teaching young adults to properly debate gives them struc­ture and the ability to think through their arguments but also teaches them much more. Tour Guide: Introduction to Debate from Classical Conversations introduces Team Policy Debate and Lincoln-Douglas Debate and gives step-by-step detail of the entire debate process, including how to gather evidence, the roles of judges, timers, coaches, and how to organize a flow chart. Appendices include games, tools for assessing debate, and a sample debate script. While used in Classical Conversations Challenge I and II, this course would work well in any co-op setting. Families may also use it at home, although it works best with other students to practice with and learn from. An optional DVD mentioned in the appendix is only avail­able to CC families and is not necessary for the course.