Introducing Debate at Highlands

 

Highlands School is delighted to announce that this year, we introduced a formal debate program as an option for fifth through eighth grade students. This program is led by our talented, beloved, and dedicated 4th and 5th social studies teacher, Crystal Winslett. Crystal has led debate informally after school for seven years and is enthusiastic about developing a more rigorous and in-depth debate program for students at Highlands. Crystal is truly passionate about debate and believes in its great importance as a meaningful and relevant experience for students, and she has been hard at work developing and implementing the debate curriculum. 

 

Given Highlands School’s mission, values, and Portrait of a Graduate, debate is a perfect addition to our school’s academic programming. Debate offers students the opportunity to develop and enhance skills that are incredibly valuable in their personal and professional lives. Participating in a debate program allows students to develop their research and critical-thinking skills, as they must explore, analyze, evaluate, and synthesize complex information in order to build and refine sound, comprehensible arguments. Through their investigations, students broaden their worldview, developing empathy, open-mindedness, and understanding for varying perspectives and ideas. As students prepare to present their arguments, they reinforce and advance many of their executive functioning skills, such as organization, planning, prioritizing, time management, and flexible thinking. Throughout their hard work and experiences in debate, students’ self-confidence, collaboration, communication, public-speaking, and leadership skills dramatically increase. 

 

As part of the debate program at Highlands, our middle school debaters have joined the Birmingham Area Debate League (BADL). Crystal has been in close contact with the Director of the Birmingham Area Debate League, TJ Riggs, as well as with the Executive Director of Debate at Samford, Lee Quinn, as Highlands embarks on this journey with our students. As part of the Birmingham Area Debate League, our students will participate in debates at Samford, which includes four competitions that culminate with a two-day championship in the spring. As a part of their work and preparation this fall, our students will engage in the topic of border security. As they research, compile their knowledge, and develop debates regarding specific aspects of this topic, they will accumulate an in-depth understanding of the complexities of this subject. We look forward to continued updates about our debaters over the course of the year!