The Broken Speech and Debate System

-- By GhaliaAamer - 22 Apr 2024

Problem Analysis

Over 73% of people are afraid of public speaking yet less than 15% of middle schools offer speech and debate programs (Montopoli, 2017). More people are afraid of public speaking than death, spiders, or height (Lindsey, 2017). When students are not taught the skills to effectively communicate at a young age, they go on to struggle to articulate themselves clearly in university applications, job interviews, and other opportunities. This means that those who do get access to public speaking or debate programs end up ahead of those who do not (Ravenscourt, 2016). The inequalities resulting from the access to speech and debate programs are seen far and wide. For example, students who have experience with public speaking and debate are more likely to get into Ivy League programs and other elite universities. Likewise, according to the Urban Debate League, debaters have as much as a 40% higher graduation rate than non-debaters (Mezuk, 2015).

Workforce Implications

The issues do not stop with post-secondary education. In fact, as we go into the workforce, there are numerous statistics to portray the benefits of public speaking and in parallel, the inequities that exist for those inexperienced with communication. For instance, those who have public speaking experience are 15% more likely to get promotions and have 10% higher wages than non public speakers (Allison, 2018). The skills that students participating in speech and debate learn include negotiation, communication, teamwork, and critical thinking. These skills translate into the workforce as oral communication is the top skill that employers are looking for (GMAC Research Team, 2020). Furthermore, 81% of corporate recruiters identify interpersonal skills as important, and 73.4% of employers want a candidate with strong written skills (GMAC Research Team, 2020). This means that the students who get access to speech and debate programs by attending private schools at a young age are advantaged not only in universities and scholarships but also as they go on in the workforce. As a result, the root cause of several inequities in the system as a whole often stem from the education delivered to students. One of the key aspects of this education is the opportunity to learn public speaking skills. The current options that exist for students to learn public speaking and debate are either integrated somehow within the curriculum inadequately or are available to only select groups of people.

Stakeholder Analysis

Key stakeholders involved in this issue include students, educators, parents, the public sector, and the private sector, among many others. First and foremost, students are the future of the world and are greatly affected by the opportunities provided to them in childhood and adolescence (Mintz, 2020). Secondly, educators are key stakeholders as they serve as mentors throughout a student’s educational journey. These people often try to help students learn public speaking and debate skills throughout their courses; however, they struggle with balancing time (Greene, 2021). Teachers, principals, and other people in schools have very limited time and often do not have the capacity to support additional programs like speech and debate. Similarly, parents are often working or occupied with other commitments, making it difficult for them to teach speech and debate skills at home. Often, both educators and parents are also not experienced enough to help their students build these skills. According to IBIS world, parents of middle school children in North America are often very busy and a key factor for them as consumers is flexibility. If they are going to enroll their children in an extracurricular public speaking or debate program, they need it to fit around their already busy schedules (Le, 2021).

Public Sector

While it may seem like a simple solution for the government to simply implement public speaking and debate skills within the curriculum, many school boards have tried and failed. For example, the Alberta, Canada curriculum claims to address skills like communication, critical thinking, and rebuttals within its social studies courses; however, the majority of students are still graduating high school without the ability to communicate well. A key reason for the lack of effectiveness is that speech and debate skills, like any other skill such as music, cannot be developed with snippets of exposure throughout an academic journey. Instead, students need to be consistently provided with the opportunity to practice these skills and get feedback from experienced mentors. The public sector could perhaps do better by supporting extracurricular speech and debate programs or mandating them as a course within schools; however, this costs money, takes a lot of time, and the public sector has many bureaucratic processes in place that make such change difficult. Curriculum or policy changes through the government can take upwards of a decade if they are ever implemented (French, 2018).  

Private Sector

In the private sector, there are elite debate academies that charge thousands of dollars per year to give students access to experienced debate coaching (Toronto Debate Academy). Many of these institutions are regional focused and cater to select groups of competitive students. As a result, they advance inequity by providing opportunities to only the upper class. There are also some nonprofit organizations like Toastmasters that attempt to help students build public speaking and debate skills in an affordable manner but struggle to do it successfully because they lack the resources to grow their organization. Without a scalable business model, these nonprofits are unable to reach many students. Even worse, while students in countries like Canada and the United States will sometimes get a certain level of speech or debate opportunities, those who are in developing countries have very little opportunity to build these skills (Denny, 2017).

Collaboration Opportunities

As more people begin to recognize the gravity of this problem, collaboration between the public and private sector will be necessary to make substantial progress (White, 2023). Policy changes combined with an innovative approach to training will enable the greatest amount of students to benefit.

References

(n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.torontodebateacademy.com/ 5 shocking public speaking statistics. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://ethos3.com/2018/03/5-shocking-public-speaking-statistics/

Anderson, S., & Mezuk, B. (2015). Positive Youth Development and Participation in an Urban Debate League: Results from Chicago Public Schools, 1997-2007. The Journal of Negro Education, 84(3), 362. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7709/jnegroeducation.84.3.0362

For Educators. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.sudl.org/for-educators/

French, J. (2018, January 10). Hitting the books: How Alberta Education is rewriting curriculum for the next generation of students. Retrieved from https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/hitting-the-books-how-alberta-education-is-rewriting-curriculum-for-the-next-generation-of-students

Greene, P. (2021, October 16). This Is The Hard Part Of Teaching. It's Getting Harder. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2021/10/15/this-is-the-hard-part-of-teaching-its-getting-harder/?sh=66367ccf78e8

John’s-Ravenscourt, S. (2016, January 11). 12 Ways Debating Will Help You for the Rest of Your Life. Retrieved from https://www.studyinternational.com/news/12-ways-debating-will-help-you-for-the-rest-of-your-life/

(n.d.). Communication Skills Still Super Important to Employers. Retrieved from https://www.mba.com/information-and-news/research-and-data/employers-seek-communications-skills#:~:text=Fast forward to the most,any other kind of skills.

K-12 Trends and the Future of Higher Education: Inside Higher Ed. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/higher-ed-gamma/k-12-trends-and-future-higher-education

Le, T. (2021, July). After-School Program Providers (OD5884) [U.S. specializedindustry report]. IBISWorld. https://www.ibisworld.com/

Lindsey, S. (2018, May 01). Fear Factor. Retrieved from https://uh.edu/magazine/2017-fall/making-an-impact/fear-factor.php

Montopoli, J. (2021, January 31). Public Speaking Anxiety and Fear of Brain Freezes. Retrieved from https://nationalsocialanxietycenter.com/2017/02/20/public-speaking-and-fear-of-brain-freezes/

Social Studies (7-9):Programs of Study. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://education.alberta.ca/social-studies-7-9/

Speech and Debate: Opportunity Should be Provided for All Students. (n.d.). Retrieved From https://www.nfhs.org/articles/speech-and-debate-opportunity-should-be-provided-for-all-students/

White, J. (2023, October 20). Why Public-Private Collaboration Is Critical to Our Future in Tech. Forbes.

Why It Matters. Retrieved from https://urbandebate.org/why-it-matters/

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