The English-Speaking Union

Middle School Debate 2018-2019

New York Debate League


Welcome to the
New York Debate League!

2018-2019 School Year

TOURNAMENT DATES:
  • October 13, 2018 (Novice Debate) at WESS
  • November 3, 2018 (Big Apple: BISNY / Empire: Speyer) 
  • December 8, 2018 (Big Apple: Dwight / Empire: WESS)
  • January 26, 2019 (Big Apple: Nest + M / Empire: Nightingale)
  • March 9, 2019 (Big Apple: Hackley / Empire: Garden)
  • Championship Debate May 18, 2019 at WESS
Debate Topics, May 18, 2019:  
  1. Expand Social Security to provide an adequate retirement.
  2. The US President should serve a single 6-year term.
  3. Facial recognition technology does more harm than good.
  4. Eliminate farm subsidies!
  5. The First Amendment should not protect lying in c campaigns and elections.
CLICK TO REGISTER FOR THE MAY 18 TOURNAMENT
click to view the topics archive
PARTICIPATING SCHOOLS:
  • British International School of New York
  • City and Country School
  • Dwight School
  • East New York Middle School of Excellence
  • Ethical Culture Fieldston
  • Garden School
  • Hackley School
  • Harvey School
  • Hoboken Charter School
  • IS 220
  • LREI
  • NEST +m
  • Nightingale-Bamford School
  • Our Lady of Good Counsel
  • School for Global Leaders
  • Speyer Legacy School
  • The Anderson School
  • The Dalton School
  • The Island School (PS/MS 188)
  • The School at Columbia University
  • Transfiguration School
  • United Nations International School
  • Unity Preparatory Charter School
  • West End Secondary School 

Debate Team from the Hackley School wins 2016 English-Speaking Union Middle School Debate Championship Tournament

NATIONAL NEWS – posted May 1, 2016

The Hackley School, Stephen Fitzpatrick, Kiri Fitzpatrick, Hannah Ostfield, Alex Goldman

The English-Speaking Union Middle School Debate Program capped off a successful fifth year with its annual Championship Tournament, which took place at Stone Bridge Middle School in Allentown, NJ, on April 16, 2016.  All six ESU Middle School Debate Program leagues participated bringing together 250 debaters from 29 schools from New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland, and Washington D.C. 

The English-Speaking Union Middle School Debate Program teaches the fundamentals of argumentation and debate to students in grades 5-8. Established in 2011, the program now includes three ESU-sponsored leagues in New York, two in New Jersey and one in Washington, DC.  Some 50 public, private, parochial and charter schools participate in the program, engaging more than 1,000 teenagers annually in weekly after-school debate activities designed to develop and hone student's public speaking, critical thinking, listening and debating skills.

Read Full Story

The New York Times features ESU Middle School Debate

The ESU is pleased to share today's The New York Times article, "A Diverse Mix of Pupils, Learning Civilized Dissent," featuring the ESU Middle School Debate program's New York Debate League. Now in its fourth year, the program, designed to help young adolescents develop critical thinking and language arts skills through public speaking, has reached more than 2,300 students in grades 5 to 8 in New York and New Jersey. There are nearly 900 individual debates through this program annually.

The article underscores one of the Middle School Debate program's strengths—bringing together students from various backgrounds that, as Brianna Scott (a seventh grader at Success Academy Harlem West) says, "prepare[s] you to go out into the world."

Read the article here