By STEVEN JUPITER
BRANDON—All of us have, at one time or another, walked away from an argument and immediately thought of the perfect response to a jab that left us flummoxed in the moment. If only we’d thought of it when it mattered! That’s the art of debate: thinking of just the right response when it actually matters. And the members of the new Debate Club at Otter Valley, supervised by English teacher Steven Thomas, are already showing that they have the skills not only to research given topics, but also to think on their feet. In fact, two of the club’s members—seniors Brendan McLoughlin and Jazmin Rivera—just took top honors in the novice category at the club’s first tournament in December.
This isn’t the first time Otter Valley has known debate success: a debate program was run for years by teacher David Gale and the trophy cases in OV’s lobby are testament to the prowess of those teams. But after Mr. Gale retired in the early aughts, the program fell dormant until Mr. Thomas revived it at the request of interested students last year.
“We’d always heard that our debate club in the past was extraordinary,” said McLoughlin in a recent conversation with some of his teammates and Mr. Thomas during the club’s regular meeting at school. “I jumped at the opportunity to get involved.”
“I got involved because I’m really interested in good argument with good logic,” said Rivera. “I wanted to improve my speaking skills.”
Freshman Aiden Graham added, “Debating is a very important soft skill that everyone should have.” He went on to say that he’s used those “soft skills” at home and in classes, much to his parents’ and teachers’ chagrin.
Maggie Kingston, who is an OV junior enrolled in the criminal justice program at the Stafford Tech Center in Rutland, joined the club because she thought debate would be interesting.
Sophomore Aubrey Martin had been interested in debate since 7th grade, after having seen the plaques in the school trophy case.
Junior Sienna Torres said she thought it would be a good learning opportunity for her, given her interest in becoming a lawyer.
And Torres wouldn’t be wrong in that assumption. The skills that lawyers use—logical thrusts and parries—are the very skills that good debaters must possess as they defend their positions and attack those of their opponents.
The club practices by choosing topics that interest them and then arguing both sides against each other. The range of topics they’ve covered is broad, from lighthearted questions about the existence of extraterrestrials or age limits on trick-or-treating to more serious subjects like religion, where club members might already have deeply held beliefs.
But Mr. Thomas makes sure that everyone in the club remains respectful of one another, regardless of the topic at hand.
“We’re all such good friends, we can poke fun at each other,” said Rivera. But there’s a limit and Mr. Thomas makes members who exhibit poor sportsmanship wear the “hat of disrespect.” Every member, except Torrres, has worn that hat at one point or another, according to the students.
“Respect among the students has increased from last year,” said Mr. Thomas, noting that the emphasis on good sportsmanship and civility has had an effect. “We’ve forgotten how to talk to each other about hard topics,” he added.
“We try to keep an open mind,” said Torres. “You have to suppress your personal opinions and keep a professional outlook.”
Rivera and McLoughlin won 1st place in the novice category by acing their debate on whether the United States should continue to support Taiwan. The topic of a tournament debate is provided well ahead of the event, to give the teams time to research the subject thoroughly because they will have to argue both sides of the question.
“Because you prep both sides, you can predict what your opponent will say,” said Thomas. “It’s a great intellectual exercise of putting yourself in someone else’s shoes. It’s a very valuable tool to be able to evaluate arguments.”
Once at the tournament, the opposing two-person teams flip a coin and the winner of the flip gets to choose which side—pro or con—they’ll argue first while the loser of the flip gets to choose whether they go first or second in the round.
For their debate, McLoughlin and Rivera prepared arguments both in favor of continued support of Taiwan (e.g., it would help keep our rival, China, in check) and against (e.g., it would antagonize China, a superpower).
For his part, McLoughlin knew he’d scored a major point against their opponents from Mill River when he met the argument about antagonism with a counterargument using the disastrous appeasement of Nazi Germany as an example. Mill River hadn’t anticipated the argument and had no effective reply.
After the debate, the judges give the teams feedback on their strengths and weaknesses to help them learn from their successes and failures. Rivera and McLoughlin were praised for their command of facts and their quick thinking and dinged for sometimes failing to bring their arguments back to points they’d made earlier in the debate.
But all in all, it was a very successful outing for the Otters, as McLoughlin and Rivera nabbed 1st place as a team in the novice category, with McLoughlin coming in 2nd individually and Rivera 5th.
The club’s next tournament will likely be on January 25 in Montpelier, with another on February 2 at Champlain Valley.
The students all laud Mr. Thomas for his guidance and leadership. And the praise is reciprocated by Mr. Thomas.
“I’m proud and privileged to work with these talented kids,” said Thomas. “It’s been a highlight of my time at Otter Valley. They’re an amazing group of students.”
So, if you encounter an OV student who talks circles around you, you’ll know where they learned the skill.
Congrats and keep up the good work!
