Overview
This Virtual Debate & Speech Academy is open to all upper elementary to high school students and is designed to teach the fundamentals of public speaking and argumentation skills that will enable students to develop confidence, self-esteem, critical thinking skills, creativity, and leadership. Students will have a chance to improve their communication skills in a safe and secure environment. They will walk away from this camp knowing how to structure arguments, prepare debate cases, research evidence, write rebuttal briefs, deliver speeches, and refute opponents.
To maintain students in a place of motivation, academic readiness, and simple good emotional health, we need to bring them online for education, intellectual stimulation, occupation, and socialization. Not only is the American Debate League prepared to offer this, it is our honor and, I think, our obligation to help students participate in a unique opportunity, one which we have literally never experienced before.
The American Debate League has worked hard to serve the NY, NJ, and CT student community. That being said, we have always welcomed students from outside of our area; but given the logistics of travel and other costs, it simply hasn't been a realistic solution for most out-of-area students. But the Online Debate Academy has no such limitations. This Debate Academy will be a national, even an international, experience.
The epidemic has forced us to go forward with something that's been discussed since the advent of Internet telecommunication, but which has never really seen true deployment before: virtual learning which is not dependent on geography or regional proximity. This is the first summer when there is a full agreement in the parent, teacher, and student communities that we need online education.
