YORKTON - A new group is launching to promote youth debate in Yorkton.
While admitting exactly how it might evolve as a club, Sarah Greensides is organizing the Yorkton Debate Academy.
Interestingly, Greensides was not involved in debate as a youth.
“I was not in debate as a youth,” she told Yorkton This Week. “I’m originally from Ontario and my schools did not offer it as an option for extra-curricular. As far as I know there were no community clubs either.”
So where did her interest come from?
‘Early in my teaching career at the Yorkton Regional High School, my Vice-Principal at the time, Dennis Nesseth, asked me if I would be interested in reviving the Debate Club at the school,” said Greensides. “After doing some research and learning about SEDA (Saskatchewan Elocution and Debate Association), I decided to give it a try. I was the debate coach at the Yorkton Regional High School for four-five years but took a break and then came back to it two years ago.
“I see the benefits of debate and want more youth to have an opportunity to participate in it.”
Asked what those benefits are Greensides provided the following:
- Participating in debate will give debaters an improved perspective on the world around them - they will learn about important issues in politics, public policy, and philosophy and gain a better appreciation for diverse perspectives.
- Debaters develop excellent oral and written communication skills.
- Debaters develop excellent critical thinking skills as well as effective tools for research, organization, and presentation.
- Debate will empower participants to hold well-reasoned arguments and improve their confidence in public speaking.
- We also have a lot of fun during practices and tournaments.
The new group will be something that can compliment school programs which are somewhat limited locally.
“It is in school. The Yorkton Regional High School offered it as an extracurricular club option and Saltcoats School also offers it. As far as I know, there are no other schools in the Good Spirit School Division or Christ the Teacher School Division that offer it,” said Greensides. “At least I haven’t seen any other Yorkton and area schools represented at SEDA debate tournaments the last few years. Because of this, I want to offer debate as a community club so any student in any school division, including home schooled, can participate.”
The Saskatchewan Elocution and Debate Association, SEDA, is a non-profit organization that helps children and youth be effective communicators, deep thinkers, and engaged community members. SEDA divides debaters into 4 categories: beginner: youth in grades 5 and 6, intermediate: youth in grades 7 and 8, novice: youth in grades nine-to-12 who have never debated before, and open: youth in grades 9-12 who have debated before with SEDA.
“I’m hoping I’ll have youth in all categories come out and participate in debate practices and tournaments,” said Greensides. “SEDA also has a policy that each team needs to bring their own judge, and judges do not need to have any experience, so I’m also hoping that parents, guardians, family of debaters, and friends of debaters will get involved.”
Of course the focus of the new club will have Greensides teaching the debaters how to debate.
“This includes learning the various terms that they will use, understanding the Nationals Style of Debate, argumentation, refutation, style and persuasion, strategy, and how to prepare,” she said. “As part of the foregoing, they will learn effective research tools, organization strategies, and various presentation styles.
“Speaking in front of others can be scary, so youth will also learn strategies to control their nerves to help increase their confidence.”
SEDA tournaments consist of prepared tournaments and impromptu tournaments. For impromptu tournaments, debaters do not know the motions ahead of time, they only know the theme of the tournament.
“I will teach debaters how to use their 30 minutes of preparation time most effectively,” said Greensides.
“We will also practice 'thinking on your feet' so debaters can elaborate on their point of view and arguments without necessarily having written anything down during their preparation time.”
The new club will meet Wednesdays, beginning Aug. 28, at the Yorkton Public Library from 5:30-7:00 pm. The season begins at the end of August with the first tournament usually at the beginning of October (SEDA hasn’t set their tournament dates yet) and runs until the end of March.
Tournaments are often in Regina and Saskatoon (they have also been in Swift Current, Saltcoats, Yorkton), so travel is mandatory. Debaters will travel with their families to competitions, and Greensides will also be there to coach and support them. When COVID hit, SEDA adapted by offering online Zoom tournaments, and since then they have adapted to include both in-person and online tournaments, which means that not every tournament throughout the season will require travel, but it will require a device and internet access.
Without any funding, if the debater attends every single tournament, the cost will be approximately $500 plus transportation to and from in-person tournaments, said Greensides, adding she has applied for a couple of grants in hopes that this will lessen the cost for debaters and their families.
