Debate is becoming a rising art in the U.S, and for those interested there is a club for it. The perspectives of a freshman new to the club has been ascertained.
Rahil Syed who started debate in 8th grade and has continued in freshman year does the debate category of Extemp or “Extemporaneous Speaking”. In Extemp a person is given 30 minutes for research on a given category such as philosophy, history, etc and then gives a 7 minute speech on it. Extemp is about individuals but for those who don’t want to work alone there are team activities too.
While anyone can do debate it’s thought that people who are interested in politics and more analytical would like it. Again, anyone can do it with enough interest and dedication but if in order to do Extemp it would be easier if you did like politics.
Debate is a good way to travel around too, while most of the locations stay in state there are opportunities to get out of state too, try new things, and eat new food some have even gone to Harvard. Debate does allow time for “the laziest person ever” to have free time too for those who are worried about that.
Debate is a tight knit community too allowing chances to make friends. Something that one would probably want if they chose to work in a team or with a partner, while one wouldn’t necessarily want someone they’d goof off with all the time having a “close friend” is a good idea. As with any high school group drama does happen but it doesn’t really affect much. A person gets to see different kinds of people and just talk. “It’s actually the one group of people where I haven’t seen politics affect a single friendship”.
