Nov 20, 2023 At 09:54 AM EDT
In competitive debate, we understand the concept of impact to mean the reason why a particular argument is important. All of the energy and effort put into the creation of your argument, or for participating in debate at all, is lost if you cannot identify and convey why what you say matters.
Like many teachers before and since, I began my career with a vague desire to make a difference and to inspire a love for knowledge. In the absence of any other driving passion, it seemed like a worthy path to pursue. In my third decade in a middle-school classroom, I had begun to question if what I'd been doing mattered at all to the thousands of students with whom I'd been entrusted. What impact had I made?
I'd long viewed middle-school education as primarily a vehicle for passing on larger lessons, as the rudimentary and introductory nature of the content was clearly insufficient preparation for the world. I tried to infuse lessons on early American history with observations of human nature and questions of moral value, the application of critical thinking skills and the ability to communicate ideas. I was not convinced that my efforts to breathe life into all of the venn diagrams and document-based essays had moved the needle when it came to delivering portable and transferable life skills.
When my principal asked me in 2016 to create and coach a debate team as part of an inter-district activity, I had serious doubts that I would be up for the task, never having been a debater myself. I did, however, recognize that debate had academic value and a practical connection to essential thinking skills. At the time, some of my colleagues were trying out a Socratic dialogue, a less adversarial but similar activity to debate, in the classroom. After seeing the enthusiasm for this initiative from teachers and students, I proceeded to stumble through figuring out how to teach debate.
I arrived at the door of the NYC Urban Debate League in 2018. What I found was a welcoming group of experienced debaters and coaches who clearly loved and believed in the value of what they were doing. In addition to instructing me and patiently answering my many questions, they insisted that I was perfectly qualified and capable to do this on my own. Serving as a judge at those early tournaments brought a vital new perspective on the debating process. Combining this experience with the league's teacher-friendly curriculum materials, my school was soon a regular participant at NYCUDL events.
In the years since, I've watched and marveled at the multitude of opportunities for growth and learning that debate provides. When I was young, the lessons in and out of the classroom that mattered most were the ones I was able to learn through my direct experience—call them demonstrations of my own competence, of courage, of my ability to deliver something of quality. Of course there were those teachers, mentors and friends who guided me to the place where this became possible, but the final, consequential step was mine to take.
More than anything I've done as a teacher, debate has created the environment for this deeper level of learning to take place. And just what lessons do we value and wish for our students to learn? We want them to reach a level of understanding and academic competency, to successfully navigate socially in the world, to exhibit good character and citizenship, to feel confidence in their voice and worth, and to function independently. It seems to me that debate is the place where all of these pathways we wish the students to travel converge. Tapping the energy and enthusiasm of 12-year-olds is the Holy Grail of middle school education, and I've found it here in the form of contentions, flow-sheets and rebuttals.
More than the activity itself, it's the larger lessons that are most meaningful. When I see students dig deep and find their strength to persist after losing a round, tackle difficult problems despite recognizing that the right answer is elusive, muster the courage to "go maverick" (to debate solo) when their partner wakes up with a fever on tournament day, sincerely congratulate their opponents on a "good round," I know that what I've been doing matters. When I watch a group of diverse seventh and eighth graders bond over their shared love of this activity, when I hear from alumni eager to return as judges, happy to see me and each other (and to know that I'm the one that brought them to this place)—this is my impact.
Back in 2016, one of the coaches in the district had hinted that they found debate to be transformative for their students. And I see that it has had a transformative effect on the kids. But I was not expecting it to have this type of effect on me. That's been the bonus. I will forever be grateful to the UDL in that through debate, I have found my impact.
Darren Kessler been teaching in NYC since 1991. He began coaching the I.S. 239 - Mark Twain Intermediate School debate team in Coney Island in 2016 and their team became part of the NYC Urban Debate League in 2018. He had been a NYCUDL Summer Camp pod-leader the past three years. It gives him great satisfaction to have guided his students to this wonderful activity and to have played a small role in helping them find their voice in the world.
