The Great Debaters of Bayside

Once the school week ends, most kids are concerned with relaxing or catching up with friends, but a group of Bayside junior high students are hitting the books in the hopes of becoming state debate champions this weekend.

A team from AGAPE Leaders Prep, an after school program in Bayside, will head to Brooklyn Tech this Friday and Saturday to compete in the middle school division of the New York State Debate Coaches Association tournament. Over 35 schools from across the state will also be participating in the tournament.

“The work ethic that they have put into studying the material is astounding,” said Richard Connelly, head coach for the AGAPE debate team. “Even though we’ve been debating the same topic throughout the year, they have to research thousands of different cases and constantly look at new ways to approach the topic.”

The team has been meeting at AGAPE every Saturday since the beginning of the school year, and also constantly send each other new material via e-mail, as they analyze this year’s debate topic of whether or not the US should withdraw troops from all foreign countries.

In addition, the team has participated in four debate tournaments throughout the state, which enabled them to qualify for the NYSDCA tournament. Two pairs on the team have also been involved in debate tournaments at the high school level, having recently come back from a competition at Harvard University.

Mariel Jung, an 8th grader at Herricks Middle School, said the team has developed stronger arguments with broader depth since first debating the topic.

“We were obviously a little rusty at first, but I have a much deeper understanding of the topic now, and feel more comfortable arguing on both the affirmative and negative sides,” said Jung.

In addition to increasing their debating skills, several of the students also say their time on the team has been beneficial both in and out of the classroom.

“Debating has helped me a lot with schoolwork because it involves taking fast notes when people are talking quickly,” said Monica Lee, an 8th grader at Marie Curie Middle School. “On top of that, it’s just given me more confidence in general. I used to be very quiet and now feel much more comfortable speaking in front of people.”

Of course, there can also be some other perks in learning how to effectively argue.

 “I was recently able to convince my parents to buy me a Macbook Pro,” said Lee. “My dad is someone who doesn’t change his mind very easily, so that was worth more to me than the trophies I’ve gotten at tournaments.”