Hackley Middle School Debate Team Victories

On Saturday, December 3rd, 2011 twelve Hackley students spent all day participating in the first inaugural tournament of the New York Metro Region Debate League. The formation of the league, organized by the English Speaking Union and the MS Public Debate Program (http://middleschooldebate.com/index.htm), is a nationwide effort to improve the level of social discourse in the country and is specifically aimed at MS students. Hackley is pleased to be a founding member of the NY metro region league.

Hackley made quite an impressive showing in their debut performance. Not only did we have the only two undefeated teams in the tournament, but three Hackley students out of the top five recognized earned individual honors, including the Top Speaker award. Eighth graders Marc Rod and Kristina Franke scored the 4th and 2nd most points respectively and eighth grader George Wangensteen won the Top Speaker award.

The format of the debate pits three students per side debating five topics over the course of the day. The topics for this tournament included whether television is a bad influence, whether the United States should expand its use of nuclear power, and whether NATO should withdraw from Afghanistan. The overall best team based on points went to Karina Franke, Marc Rod, and Basia Van Buren with 2nd place going to Greg Chung, Hiro Kuwana, and George Wangensteen. Fourth place was another Hackley team, consisting of Will Pundyk, Zach Shalett, and Brian Schmitt. Our final Hackley team was Sabina Thomas, Julia Stevenson, and Sydney Monroe who also contributed two wins which gave Hackley the overall team trophy for total wins (15 out of a possible 20 debates!).

Aside from the excellent results, Hackley students learned some valuable skills including notetaking techniques, public speaking, and argumentation. While we currently only have eighth graders participating in the club, I am hopeful we will expand the membership as the debate league is open to 5th, 6th, and 7th graders as well.

The debate team is part of the overall MS Model Congress program which emphasizes current events and public speaking and meets during the study hall period (3:50 – 4:30) on Wednesdays.

The next debate is Saturday, February 11th!

Please e-mail Mr. Fitzpatrick (sfitzpatick@hackleyschool.org) if you have any questions or would like your MS child to find out more about the program.

Thanks!

Steve Fitzpatrick