Middle Schoolers: do you like to argue? Do you want to win arguments more often? If so, the debate team is a great place to learn!

Westminster Middle School offers debate as an extracurricular for 7th and 8th-grade students. However, not many people know how the academic team really works, or that a few advanced students even practice and compete at the Upper School level.

Only a few 8th-grade debaters join the Upper School team, and only the most dedicated. “Usually those are the debaters who are really serious about debate,” Middle School debate coach Addie Matteson says. “They often have gone to a pretty intense summer camp where they work with university students and college professors.”

Middle School practices go from 3:15-4:15 every day, with tournaments happening once a month on Saturdays. Students typically have to arrive at tournaments at 8:00 A.M. They spend hours debating with the day split into four rounds—two are affirmative (students argue in support of a topic), and two are negative (students argue against a topic).

The Upper School team, on the other hand, has tournaments every week, as they are part of the National League as opposed to the Atlanta Urban Debate League. Katherine Su, an 8th-grade student on the Upper School debate team, enjoys the more frequent competitions. “Upper School debate has more opportunities,” she says.

Su also appreciates working with older and more experienced students. “I feel like high school [debate] is a lot more helpful in a sense . . . there are other coaches and seniors that can help you out,” she says.

Because debate branches off into many different types, schools typically focus on only one or two. At Westminster, the debate team does Policy debate, which means they argue about government policies. Throughout the year, students receive comprehensive instruction on the fundamentals of debate, including effective collaboration with a partner and honing their debating skills. According to Matteson, students start the year by learning the basics. “At the beginning of the year, [students] spend a lot of time learning debate, learning how it works, and learning how to work with partners.” She believes that as a year-long goal, however, the most important skill “is the ability to construct an argument and back it up with evidence and also the ability to listen to your opponents and respond with information that makes sense to further your argument.”