Cheverus Debate Team

Dan Haskell

The Cheverus Debate Team will travel to seven tournaments by the end of the five-month season, culminating the State Championship Tournament held at Marancook High School in January and the Catholic Forensic League District Qualifiers hosted by Cheverus in February.  Members of the debate team have returned from stunning success at the National Forensic League national tournament held in Salt Lake City, Utah in June, and we anticipate building upon competition at three levels: Novice, Junior Varsity, and Varsity.

Lincoln-Douglas debating is a value-based debate, where the interlocutors must argue both in favor of and against a given resolution over the course of a day-long tournament. They must make a case for why their chosen value must be championed and how affirming or negating the resolution accomplishes that position.  For example, one past resolution read, “An oppressive government is better than no government.”  Consequently, members of the squad became very familiar with important philosophical topics, including but not at all limited to Thomas Hobbes’ and John Locke’s conflicting views on the state of nature, politics as natural or conventional, and the historical patterns of tyranny.

In addition to broadening their intellectual base and deepening their analytical powers, debaters generally cultivate self-confidence and verbal presentation skills which make the activity amply worthwhile, even at the price of a couple of Saturdays a month.