It makes sense at first that students practice debate in the classroom. After all, our own government has chosen debate as the format to deliberate on the issues that affect Americans and, at times, citizens of other countries. In practicing debate, though, it feels as if students are mistaking debate for discussion.

The organization of a debate is the farthest one could get from creating discussion. From the beginning, there are two opposing sides, no matter what the issue being debated is. A delegate is either pro-abortion, or against abortion, pro-draft, or against a draft, pro-this, or against that. That set-up alone is an extremely shallow way to deliberate issues. With this organization, students cannot really think about the issues, as they are either told what opinion they have about an issue or must choose their opinion before the debate.

Discussion doesn’t work that way. Every person experiences life individually, and so each has a different perspective. By polarizing an issue, several perspectives on a topic are absent from the debate. As a result, students can only touch the surface of the topics they are supposed to debate.

When one considers what a debate accomplishes in reality, one will realize that the outcome is only negative. As a debate ensues, it looks like a more civilized war. Students on opposite sides turn into enemies, at times rudely retorting the opposite side’s questions or reducing an argument made by the opposing team into a ridiculous notion. Delegates are not there to listen to each other’s arguments. They are there to win, to argue only their point, and the most manipulative side wins—the side that swerves the obstacles the other team sets for them. Debate is a sport, and sport has no place in discussion. The warring mood of a debate remains with students in some measure even after class. Some students can be heard bashing members of the team, who they might be more friendly to under usual circumstances. The debates create more barriers between people than there were before, and bitterness toward the other side is contagious. This is not a healthy or positive way for students to consider issues, and it is definitely not good for them to think of debate as a model of discussion.

The classroom needs much less debate, and more discussion. Though students have been exposed to Socratic discussions, it has been nothing when compared to the amount of time spent on learning debating procedures. In a Socratic discussion, students are allowed to go beyond the polarized arguments of political parties. Socrates required his students to analyze assigned material prior to the discussion. In the discussion, students were to express their individual thoughts and opinions of the “written and spoken word.” Socrates would be silent to allow for true discussion to flow from his students, emphasizing that finding the answers to questions was not as important as the path the discussion made. This model of discussion does not require students to set out knowing the answers and arguing them no matter what, as debate does. Students must think about topics in several ways, and listening and considering what other individuals have to say is key.

Even if debate is the way our own Congress and Senate choose to make decisions, it doesn’t mean it is an effective format. Perhaps, in the future politicians in our government will have to realize that their method of “discussion” it not conducive to finding solutions, especially when the issues being debated upon are matters that affect our lives. In the meantime, though, it is important that students practice true discussion. In an age of misunderstanding between people and nations, debate is not what we need. We need to listen, to think individually about problems and issues, and share our thoughts with others in a positive way. In the end, no one person knows the answer or has the perfect solution to a problem. Everyone has pieces of the truth in their perspective on life, as Socrates said, and it is from the union of all individual perspectives that we can find greater truth.