How much of a time commitment is required to participate in Debate?

[Jackie in AR]

We have new friends who are forming a Speech/Debate club in our town. The club will be a member of the NCFCA. The son of these friends has participated in both events for 3 years - grades 6 through 8. They are encouraging our boys (who will be 9th graders in the fall) to be members of the new club.

 

I understand the benefits of participating in something like this. What I would like to get more understanding of is the time commitment involved. My friend assures me that for the first year, the commitment would only be about one hour per day. Then she tells me that her son spent from 10 to 20 hours per week preparing this past year, but that was because it was his third year to compete. The difference in time commitment doesn't make sense to me since all the participating students will be competing against one another during the tournaments.

 

What has been your experience with your dc as far as time commitment goes? I'm not sure we're going to be up for something that is going to take over our lives.

 

Thanks for any insight you can offer.

[Gwen in VA]

I have had three kids do speech and debate for one year each and one kid do it for 5 years.

 

Time commitment -- infinite.

Benefit -- infinite. Research skills. Speaking skills. Logic development. Organization skills. Political awareness. Learning about being a gracious loser. Being around a great bunch of Christian kids and families.

 

The daily time commitment was high but definitely worth it. I would strongly encourage you to have your son take the class.

 

The area where we had issues as a family was the tournaments. Most of the tournaments are Thursday - Saturday, and at least where we live often they are far enough away to require leaving on Wednesday and coming home on Sunday. Even if you stay with other homeschool families ("host housing") the tournaments aren't cheap by the time you factor in gas and food, and if you can't do host housing for some reason the cost is amazingly high.

 

We decided that our younger two kids would do the debate class and learn some debate skills but would not compete in tournaments or continue debating after the end of the class. The cost (time, financial, and just family stress) was too high for us to continue. But we are SO glad that our kids did the class!

[Nissi]

I agree with Gwen. Today, I was evaluating our year of school and have come to realize that Math and Science suffered this year primarily due to debate which is a huge interest for our son. I am not regretting anything about it but I feel we need to manage our time and schedule better this coming year. Our children are going to continue to participate in Speech and Debate next year but I will allot time for it and include it as a subject not an extracurricular. Hopefully, the time commitment this year will not be as large as last year since he has already learned the ropes.

[Sophia]

It's a big time commitment.

I hesitate to put a number on it, because some days ds would work on his case all day, some days he'd take off from debate and do other stuff.

Speech and debate has been fun for ds though, and I know he doesn't think of it as work in the same way he thinks of math as work, iykwim.

[Jane in NC]

When I was a high school freshman, I was on a debate team. We had meetings, I did weekend research, it was time commitment but not majorly significant. Then we went to a tournament where we were creamed by everyone else who lived, breathed and ate debate. It was a rude awakening.

 

That was my one and only year on a debate team. It a great experience but I turned my energies to forensics (one act plays and speech competitions) in later years.

 

I view public speaking as a necessary skill. Debate goes beyond public speaking (as others have mentioned) but does come with a huge cost in terms of time. Nonetheless, even some participation is better than no participation. There is so much to learn from this sort of venture!

[Cedarmom]

I think an hour a day + tournament time is a good assement. The reason that it requires more time later is that the more involved they get, the more they know how to research and the stronger the desire to win. My son could spend 24 hours a day researching for debate. However, I allow in our schedule about an hour a day ( plus the day before the tournament I give him longer) Extra time over that is done after school is done in his free time.

[FloridaLisa]

The time commitment can also vary from club to club, depending on club requirements. Some clubs require families to join NCFCA and participate in many tournaments. Our club is also a member of CFC (or ICC -- Institute of Cultural Communicators aka Communicators for Christ). We require students to participate in four community speaking platforms per year, but do not require NCFCA memebership or out-of-town tournaments.

 

Also, will your dc do both speech and debate? If so, that can add on hours. I agree to budget an hour per day in the beginning. If they catch the bug, they'll be off and running and will spend many hours more than that, though in fits and spurts. For us, it's best to manage it as an academic subject and make room in the academic weekly schedule. You may well end up counting it as an extracurricular, but it's really difficult to juggle six other academic subjects, plus speech and/or debate plus youth, sports, volunteer.

 

Finally, I think that families that really pursue competitive debate treat is like a travel team sport. Gwen is right that it will involve a big commitment of family time and resources. We take it year by year. Last year was a tournament year. Next year, we hope to emphasize community speaking more.

 

HTH,

Lisa

[Brenda in MA]

I've been thinking about looking into speech and/or debate for my 13 yo ds (8th gr next year). I think he would enjoy it and learn a lot, but I am also worried about the time commitment.

 

I like the idea of taking a class or participating for one year, and I think I would make it an elective course and give him credit for it. So, here are my questions.

 

If he were only to do this for one year, which year is best? Is there a level of maturity required and at what age(s) do you think he would get the most out of it? Would it be helpful for him to have a logic course before beginning debate?

 

TIA,

Brenda

[FloridaLisa]

So, here are my questions.

 

If he were only to do this for one year, which year is best? Is there a level of maturity required and at what age(s) do you think he would get the most out of it? Would it be helpful for him to have a logic course before beginning debate?

 

Good questions, Brenda. Generally, it's been my experience that the younger the student, the steeper the learning curve. On the other hand, the older the student, the busier and more dense the academic schedule, often leaving less time for debate. Eighth grade is actually a great time to start. If you are absolutely sure you only want one year, you could postpone it until 9th to ensure high school credit.

 

The beginning debate student has two learning curves. Not only does the student learn about debate structure and theory, but also the substantive areas such as economics, government, domestic and foreign policy. All kids are new to debate theory. However, the substantive areas -- the world of policy and government -- will typically be less familiar to a younger student. You can give your child a huge boost if you talk about current policy, the workings of government, worldwide events and issues. He will have a much easier time researching and speaking on the debate topic.

 

Regarding whether it would be helpful to have a logic course. I'm having a hard time answering and I've erased my answer several times! The study of fallacies would be very helpful. Formal logic might not be directly transferrable, but certainly can be part of the recipe to develop a thinker. So, I guess I'd say study logic if it was already in your scope and sequence.

 

HTH,

Lisa

[Jackie in AR]

Thank you, everyone, for your replies thus far. It is good to hear a broad range of experiences.

 

In my mind, the time commitment is a really big hurdle for us to overcome. We already had the boys' freshman year mapped out with a pretty heavy academic load, and adding debate would likely require major adjustments.

 

Dh and I will need to give this a lot more thought.