Dec. 1, 1998
Contact: Deb Hammacher (404) 727-0644, [email protected]
EMORY'S DEBATE PROGRAM SERVES AS NATIONAL MODEL TO PREVENTVIOLENCE, BOOST ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE FOR AT-RISK YOUTH
Last year George Soros' Open Society Institute gave a three-year, $600,000 grant to Emory University's Barkley Forum debate program to serve as a model and mentor for inner city school debate programs around the country in an effort to prevent youth violence and boost academic performance. Urban debate leagues have been established in New York, Detroit, Durham, N.C., Tallahassee, Fla., Tuscaloosa, Ala., and Kansas City, Mo. Programs also are being planned in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
"Information is free," says Melissa Wade, director of the Barkley Forum. "But we live in two different countries. Through debate, the dialogue between the two spans the chasms of difference and levels the playing field." She adds that "there is a trade-off between verbal and physical assertiveness. If someone can command attention with words, he or she does not have to resort to violence to command attention." In addition to the verbal skills so essential to the inner city youth targeted in the program, competitive debate develops analytical, research and critical thinking skills.
Wade knows that debate training works for at-risk youth because she has seen it first hand. She cites the example of an Atlanta youth who took part in the Atlanta Urban Debate League: the product of a broken home and involved in a neighborhood gang, the young man was fortunate enough to have a middle school teacher steer him toward the program and help him secure an institute scholarship. This student was so successful at debate that he was recruited by seven colleges in five states and entered the University of Alabama this past fall on a full scholarship for debate.
The grant provides for Wade to serve as lead advisor to the various programs and provides scholarships for students to attend the two-week Emory National Debate Institute in the summer. This past summer more than half of the 450-plus participants received full scholarships to the institute for policy debate training.
The 48-year old Barkley Forum, one of the largest and most successful collegiate debate programs in the nation, launched the Atlanta Urban Debate League 10 years ago--and expanded it in 1995--as a partnership with the Atlanta Public Schools and Decatur City Schools which serves as the model for the newly established urban debate leagues.
###
For more information from the Office of University Communications, go to: www.emory.edu/central/news.html
RSS