Full article at Current Affairs
It never took much to convince me about the value of debate. My father, a first-generation Chinese immigrant, recognized early on in my high school career the value of public speaking and advocacy, suggesting that his stagnation in his professional career was in part due to his lack of leadership and public speaking skills. He vowed that such a deficit would never be a reason his son failed to advance up the ranks in whatever STEM field I would end up pursuing. Unfortunately for my father, my introduction to the world of competitive high school speech and debate ended up being a gateway into over a decade of involvement with the activity and a decline in interest in most STEM-related fields. I have been involved with competitive debate since 2010, both as a competitor and coach. I have taught debate both at exclusive, coastal private schools—where debate is yet another activity used by wealthy students to bolster the college resume and an elitist activity that disparately excludes poor students—and at small schools in rural China—where debate is a way for students to improve their English language skills and to learn how to speak their minds. I currently teach debate at the University of Wyoming where I assist with coaching the collegiate policy debate team, an activity that remains exclusive and the frequent target of conservative criticism, and help lead a free coaching resource for high school debaters in Wyoming.
Full article at Current Affairs