Our InitiativesMission
The Baltimore Urban Debate League’s mission is to enrich the academic experience of students from Baltimore City’s public high schools through participation in team policy debate. The Baltimore Urban Debate League is especially interested in students with untapped potential, who are disengaged from the contemporary high school classroom. For these students, and for traditionally successful students as well, debate often becomes the most rewarding activity of their high school career. Because debate requires self-directed learning and includes opportunities for competitive success, it motivates students who have never before felt the thrill of being responsible and rewarded for their own learning.
Why Debate?
The preparation and delivery of debate arguments provide students with the opportunity to think critically, develop research and communication skills, solve problems creatively, and increase self-confidence. Because students involved in debate regularly engage in in-depth library and Internet research, writing and information analysis, they often receive higher grades than non-debaters in high school and are more likely to continue on to post-secondary education. Debate enables students to present their views effectively and respond to the arguments of those who disagree with them. In a time when youth violence is of increasing concern to all, debate teaches students to command attention with words rather than physical aggression and provides them with the skills to manage day-to-day conflict. In sum, debate is an alternative learning activity through which students gain the skills to become active citizens who can stimulate social change. In 1999, the Open Society Institute−Baltimore launched the Baltimore Urban Debate League to make debate widely accessible to public high school students in Baltimore City.
Program Components
- Summer Institute scholarships at Towson University and other universities throughout the country
- Seven tournaments with trophies during school year
- Professional development workshops
- Regional, national, and international opportunities to compete
- Promotion of debate in Baltimore, including mentoring at middle school debate programs and public demonstration debates
The Debate Program
The Baltimore Urban Debate League employs the team policy debate format. In policy debate, students formulate specific solutions to a policy problem of national interest. Teams of two students debate a particular policy or current events topic for the entire school year. Students conduct research and prepare extensively prior to tournaments, where judges render decisions based on the evidence presented and the quality of argumentation. Teams argue both the affirmative and negative sides of the same topic and must be prepared to address and refute the opposing side's evidence. Their research not only covers facts relevant to the specific topic but also addresses the potential impact of the policy for which they advocate. In this way, students learn to think more critically about the world around them, to look at issues from many perspectives, to question assumptions, research facts, and to develop logical argumentation skills.
Participating Schools
Baltimore City College
Edmondson Westside Senior High School
Frederick Douglass High School
Forest Park High SchoolLake Clifton-Eastern Senior High School
Merganthaler Vocational Technical High School
Northern Senior High School
Northwestern Senior High School
Patterson Senior High School
Paul Laurence Dunbar Senior High School
Southside Academy
Southwestern Senior High School
Walbrook Uniform Service Academy
Contact
If you would like to learn more about the program, please contact Pamela King at pking@sorosny.org or 1-410-234-1091 ext. 210.
Note
Because the Open Society Institute is in the initial phase of its debate program in Baltimore, the specific details of the BUD League program may be subject to change.
