NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Inside Tulip Grove Elementary classrooms, students are learning how to argue and listen through a debate program partnership with Vanderbilt University.
Debate coach Leslie Baxter helps students prepare for their arguments.
"Did you just add that last point on the fly -- impressive" Baxter said. "I am so glad you decided to do the rebuttal."
The program teaches students that debate is about more than just winning an argument. Vanderbilt director of dialogue Francesca Schuler said the skills help students better understand each other in a world filled with social media and cell phones.
"We really believein listening to learn versus listening to win" Schuler said. "We believe these habits start as young as elementary school, learning how to look somebody in the eye, how to listen, how to show up with humility."
Baxter said the focus is on the impact of the debates rather than what ends up in the trophy case.
"In the club, we’re researching, we’re writing, we’re working as a group, debating, speaking in front of people, making eye contact, projecting" Baxter said.
Preparing for the debates takes weeks of effort.
Vanderbilt student Amna Olam now judges the elementary school debates, a role that reminds her of where she started.
"So today we’re here to judge elementary school debates Vanderbilt does this program where they host and sort of coordinate debates for elementary schools" Olam said. "I did this program when I was in elementary school that’s sort of been like a full circle experience something I really wanted to give back to."
Olam said the program shaped how she thinks and speaks from an early age.
"Debate showed me the importance of learning how to deliver your arguments and finding the good sources" Olam said.
The classrooms welcome debate so students leave with the skills needed to handle disagreement later in life.
Do you know a school program making a big impact on students? Watch the video above to see these young debaters in action, and share your story ideas with me at kim.rafferty@NewsChannel5.com.
In this article, we used artificial intelligence to help us convert a video news report originally written by Kim Rafferty. When using this tool, both Kim and the NewsChannel 5 editorial team verified all the facts in the article to make sure it is fair and accurate before we published it. We care about your trust in us and where you get your news, and using this tool allows us to convert our news coverage into different formats so we can quickly reach you where you like to consume information. It also lets our journalists spend more time looking into your story ideas, listening to you and digging into the stories that matter.
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