The Palo Alto High School debate team will form a public forum debate team next year in order to address students’ enthusiasm for more persuasive, real-world relevant debate, according Jennie Savage, the school’s director of forensics.
Public forum debate differs from Lincoln-Douglas in that debaters argue a topic involving foreign or domestic policy, as opposed to a more philosophical argument, according to Savage. Additionally, public forum debate is conducted in teams of two.
“In contrast to Policy and Lincoln-Douglas debate, there is little focus on speed or debate jargon or argumentation theory,” Savage added. “Instead, successful public forum debaters must make persuasive and logical arguments in a manner that is accessible to a wide variety of audiences.”
However, public forum mirrors Policy debate in that debaters argue about a topic involving foreign or domestic policy.
“Similar to policy debate, the debate in public forum debate is conducted by teams of two people alternating speeches for their side, either affirming or negating their topic,” Savage said.
Some Paly debaters who did LD debate will make the switch to public forum debate next year. Two such debaters are sophomore Himmat Singh and freshman Alex Warner.
“Although I really enjoyed LD debate, public forum [debate] looked like a great option,” Singh said. “I felt that I wanted to try something new.”
For both debaters, the prospect of working with a partner in public forum debate is intriguing, and brings a social aspect to debate.
“I find it extremely interesting because with two partners, one person can prepare arguments while the other person is attacking the opponents,” Singh said. “What also drew me to this new style of debate was that, while in LD you mostly do research on your own, in public forum you are doing research with a friend. This cuts down the workload and you can always bounce ideas off of each other.”
“I like the idea of a more persuasive debate that had less structure and technicality,” Warner adds. “I also liked the idea of working with a partner.”
Savage said she believes public forum debate will be a good addition to the Paly team because of the politically relevant debate topics.
“Because of its strong relevance to the real world and ability to develop life skills, public forum debate has exploded in popularity since its introduction into high school debate by the National Forensic League,” Savage said.
If nothing else, PF debate is an exciting new avenue available for Paly debaters to try.
“I look forward to a new debating experience, a different style of debating in rounds, but most of aIl I am looking forward to facing strong opponents and taking them down, one-by-one with my partner,” Singh said.
Public forum debate team practices will will be held through mid-May from 7-9 p.m., according to Savage.