2008 Woodie Awards
Wesleyan debaters help high schoolers
Noah Shook
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Awards and wins are not the only things that this program is about, however. The debaters of Kansas Wesleyan are successful outside of round as well. The debaters help in all aspects of the community. This desire to help does not only exist at Wesleyan, it is prevalent among college debaters.
College debate programs help high school students achieve better than they would have without the extra help. A study done by Robert S. Littlefield and Steven J. Venette in the spring of 2004 concludes that college debaters help high school debaters greatly by broadening their learning. College debate is much more difficult than high school debate, so any time a college debater helps out, he or she can pass on their wisdom.
Eric Arganbright, when asked what the hardest thing about making the transition to college debate was, said "I'm not top dog anymore." Arganbright debated for Clay Center in high school and had a lot of success, but found the college competition to be much harder. Many college students enhance their debate skills greatly when making the switch from high school.
The aforementioned study shows that 18 percent of college debate students help out by being assistant debate coaches at high schools. Outside of that, the study found that college debaters are more apt to have the disposition of wanting to help for the sake of helping.
Head coach of Kansas Wesleyan Debate, Gary Harmon, believes that his college debaters should be active in the community, this includes helping out high schools in and around the Salina area. For his class "Current Practices in Debate and Forensics," the students have been assigned the task of helping any high school of their choice run a tournament.
Beyond that, Kansas Wesleyan offers the "Heart of America" debate camp each summer. A large percentage of the Kansas Wesleyan debaters help run this high school debate camp. Former Lyons High School debate coach and current Sterling College debate coach, Ken Troyer, has also helped at this debate camp for many years. The philosophy behind this is to teach high school students more about debate and allow them to get the help they need from more experienced debaters and debate coaches.
For Kansas Wesleyan, debate is much more than an activity. Debating might be just arguing round to round during the tournaments, but to Harmon, debate should be the search for the probable truth. This means that debaters should learn something more than how to win a debate round. The debate community is more than just a bunch of people who like to argue way too much, it is a group of people who like to argue way too much about things that matter in life. Debate is a quest for knowledge, a way to express one's opinions, and a way to interact and help others achieve goals.
The Kansas Wesleyan Debate program, although not very old, is a fine example of what college debate programs should be about. When asked what debate was, Arganbright replied with one simple word, "life." While this might sound quite nerdy, it is assuredly a metaphor. Life is what one makes of it, debate is a way of life to achieve the best one can and help others achieve as well.
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