Debate (Part 2) and a Postcard from Kyrgyzstan

I said before that I cared more about my students in Khujand than the tournament that was to come in Dushanbe. That was before we went to Dushanbe for the First National English Debate Tournament (March 29-31). I still am proud of what we did in Khujand, but being with students from all over the country brought it to a new level. Granted, there were many differing levels of debate experience and ability, but the excitement of a tournament - with four preliminary rounds in which everyone would compete - was motivation to make all of them improve immensely.

I was staying with the main organizer, and was part of the late-night planning and anxiety about making everything run smoothly. I was one of the judges; I (hilariously) gave the orienting/rules presentation to the debaters while the judges were meeting; I ended up giving out the certificates at the end. The whole thing took place at the gorgeous Ismaili Centre, which made everything more graceful. I enjoyed the planning and the executing and the walking around with my students in the city and the talking in the car through the snow on the seven hours back home. 

There are plenty more photos where those came from; and the video that Areebah and I finally had time to make - a version of the presentation we did in Nepal for future English teachers.

Of course, pretty much as soon as we put it together, we realized how little we knew about international debating and learned a whole lot. We made it to the Asia Youth Forum, after a flurry of calls to parents about permissions and passports all during and before and after the tournament in Dushanbe.

I will let IDEA describe it:

The Asia Youth Forum, one of many regional versions of the IDEA Global Youth Forum, is a two-week experience that combines the Karl Popper Debate Championship, educational tracks (including our Mixed Teams Track which brings students from different countries and different levels of experience together in a peer-to-peer learning experience) and tournaments that allow the speakers to put their newly-acquired skills into practice. Find out more at ayf.idebate.org

This year, AYF was at Lake Issykkul in Kyrgyzstan - but we were more in Debate-istan than Kyrgyzstan. They ran a full schedule for the kids, who learned a lot. They had to really work and prepare for their cases - I'm not sure I would have the intellectual stamina to prepare again and again on the same topic in another language. I joined them the second week, for various reasons, and so entered this culture with full awareness of my ignorance and a bit of trepidation. I was glad to see my students, and intrigued by the trainers and coaches. The Tajik students did really well; one of my students from Khujand made it to the Semi-Finals in the Mixed Team Tournament, while the winning team included one student from Khorog and one from Dushanbe.

This was where we were staying. Yes, you should visit Issykkul.

There are too many photos to count: the Russian IDEA Facebook page, all of my students' Facebook posts, the Asia Youth Forum website. They also interviewed people on what digital freedom means to them and in their countries, and my video is one of the ones that has been posted.  More importantly, the talent show hit "Debate Me, Maybe" has reached YouTube - again courtesy of Areebah's editing.

The view from our room.

Because there are few flights in Central Asia, we had to spend two nights in Bishkek before flying back to Tajikistan. It was fun to compare the city to Dushanbe. The same streets! The same buildings! The same monuments! Only it's Manas instead of Somoni. And their flagpole is pitiful. But Bishkek in general is so much bigger, there's so much more Russian, and so many more restaurants. We went to Sierra Cafe and couldn't stop gushing about how much it felt like America (it's more than the coffee - it's the atmosphere with the bookshelves and the baristas and - I'll stop). We had Texas-style BBQ for dinner.  Our guide to all of this was a Bishkek ETA, and we saw a bit of Bishkek with him: his university, the new mall, TSUM for gifts, attempts to visit closed-on-Monday museums.

We returned home on April 23 to TV cameras at the airport - and then a long drive to Khujand, with one student asleep on each shoulder in the middle seat of the taxi. According to their presentation yesterday at the American Corner, they not only made friends that they left with tears, but also learned about the roles in Karl Popper, what clash points are in a debate, more ideas about Digital Freedom than they ever thought to have, the importance of team-building and sportsmanship, and how to communicate with people from other countries when it is difficult. That's a success to me.

This house believes that debate is a valuable teaching/learning tool.

I have spent most of my time and energy since January preparing Tajik students to debate in English. 

I must first admit that I used to be prejudiced against debaters. Though I enjoyed debates as a class activity - to learn about the creation of Israel, for example - I am generally conflict-adverse, and it seemed that debate emphasized conflict, and seemed to feature too much of that teenage-male certainty that they are right about everything.

I am glad to report that I have changed my views. I not only think that debate is a great tool to use in a classroom, but also in extracurricular practice and competition. In preparing my students - both school-age and university - I have realized that the tools of a good debater are important tools for success in other arenas as well.  When a friend and I gave a presentation about using debate during our conference in Nepal, we started by talking about the various reasons we chose to start debate clubs. 

Students first came in order to practice English speaking skills. They desperately want practice speaking in English and they don't get that in their school or university English classes. I have had the pleasure of seeing a few of my debaters turn from shy, stuttering speakers who could hardly continue for 30 seconds into confident first speakers who can present their ideas for 6 minutes (plus three minutes answering questions). Obviously this involves not only English language skills but also the art of public speaking. For one girl who would only look at the floor, I moved around an American flag so she would look up (even if not at our faces). The group I have been working with has a ways to go, but is much more confident. 

Debating is an accessible way to approach controversial subjects, and to practice critical thinking. In the words of the International Debate Education Association, whose website we plunder extensively for ideas, 

Debate is an essential tool for developing and maintaining democracy and open societies. More than a mere verbal or performance skill, debate embodies the ideals of reasoned argument, tolerance for diverging points of view, and rigorous self-examination.  

I have seen my patience rewarded as my students have slowly moved towards these ideals. Students don't often get a chance to express their own opinions in the educational system here. We have moved from circular, non-arguments like "it is good because it is the law" or "because it is" to actual arguments in defense of a position that they may not agree with. I banned the use of the phrases "right" and "wrong" in order to move towards logical reasoning. We worked through the ideas that you are not expressing your own opinions and it is not personal - it is about ideas, and how well they are expressed. I think some of them finally understood this in our first competition when a team with better English skills lost to one with much better arguments.  I have repeated many times that debate is about respect: respecting your opponents.

As someone who teaches writing it is also satisfying to see that those same debating skills are ones that students could apply to writing: a clear introduction, outline, evidence and examples, and conclusion. They must do research. They must plan ahead. These are also foreign skills for most of them, and I love to see that it is the same process of thinking that will serve them well in writing.

Now that we have prepared and participated in two tournaments [see many more photos from the first tournament and photos from the second tournament], it is also heart-warming to see the camaraderie and friendship that have built up between students of different ages. The winners of the first tournament were a woman in her mid-20s who graduated from university with a law degree, a fourth-year university student in telecommunications, and an 11th-grade boy. At the second tournament, I inadvertently become a matchmaker in putting together the members of one of the teams.

I enjoyed organizing the tournaments; I remembered that I like producing events, and my experience producing theater shows at Yale served me well.  But I still don't like conflict, and I don't like judging. I would much rather guide the preparation process. I care too much to be a passive audience member; I was tense watching my students and waiting to see who won (and I was a bit crushed when a group lost that I thought should have won). We were lucky enough to have guest judges who would be impartial. As Sarah pointed out, one of the coolest things about these competitions is that they were fair, as opposed to many competitions here, which everyone knows are rigged because of a relative or where you are from or some other factor. 

The students were extra-excited at the second competition because the winning debaters would get the opportunity to debate in Dushanbe. My Dushanbe counterpart has been organizing a National English-language Debate tournament there, and flurries of emails have been flying back and forth about every aspect of the tournament. It is finally happening this coming weekend, and Sarah and I will go with the debaters to help manage and judge the three-day tournament. 

Also exciting, but less tangible and looking less likely, is that we have the opportunity to send some high school students to the Asia Youth Forum, a two-week debate tournament/seminar for school students all over Asia, which is taking place in Kyrgyzstan this year, near Lake Issyk-kul. This would be an amazing opportunity to learn infinitely more than I could ever teach about debate and meet peers from dozens of countries. But the scholarship process has left us in the dark, and it is still unclear what will happen.

More than the competitions, though, training these students has given me the opportunity to spend more time with them. I have gotten to see them think and talk and worry and then go out to lunch with some of them and talk more outside of the confines of debate. I am excited to meet more debaters in Dushanbe this weekend, but for me this national tournament is less important than the work that we have already done in Khujand. I am proud of all of the debaters I have been working with.

More information about training a debate team and many sample debates at idebate.org.