"Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress”
- Mohatmas Ghandi
The process of debate offers profound and lasting benefits for individuals, for societies,
and indeed, for the global community as a whole. With its emphasis on critical thinking,
effective communication, independent research, and teamwork, debate teaches skills that
serve individuals well in school, in the workplace, in political life, and in fulfilling
their responsibilities as citizens of democratic societies. Once students have learned how
to debate, they are better able to critically examine the pronouncements of their political
representatives and to make informed judgments about crucial issues.
Debate and Society
The individual skills learned through debate have a broader impact on society as well.
Debate can help fledgling democracies heal from the wounds inflicted by oppressive
dictatorships and ethnic violence by providing a forum where these volatile issues can
be openly discussed. Newly enfranchised citizens engaged in such debates learn first-hand
how democracy works. And because it teaches the principles of tolerance, nonviolence,
and respect for different points of view, debate can close the gap between minority
and majority cultures, and between other groups divided by long-standing animosities.
Debate and the World
IDEA sees debate as a way to foster international understanding,
cooperation, and a free and lively exchange of ideas. In bringing together students
from around the world and from vastly different backgrounds, IDEA events
offer much more than a mere contest of formal argumentation. By their very nature, IDEA
debates break down national, economic, cultural, and ethnic boundaries, showing that opposing
views can be explored in a way that connects rather than divides people. As a process
that both embodies and encourages peaceful discussion over aggressive confrontation,
debate offers the world a tool that could not be more timely or more necessary.
|
