Due to popular demand the ESU NY Debate League tournaments will be hosted by 2 schools with the exception of the Novice Debaters Workshop & Championship Tournament:
REMINDER: EACH SCHOOL MUST PROVIDE ONE JUDGE FOR EVERY TWO TEAMS
Only two, 2-person teams allowed per tournament. The rest of the teams must be 3-person teams.
Can you host a Saturday Debate Tournament at your school during the 2024-25 season? Email us at debate@esuus.org.
REMINDER: EACH SCHOOL MUST PROVIDE ONE JUDGE FOR EVERY TWO TEAMS.
Can you host a debate at your school during the 2023-24 season? Email us at debate@esuus.org.
SATURDAY, APRIL 27 Championship Tournament
SATURDAY, MARCH 2nd TOURNAMENT
SATURDAY, JANUARY 20th TOURNAMENT
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2nd TOURNAMENT
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 4th TOURNAMENT
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 14th Novice Debaters Workshop & Scrimmage
Parents should be able to control the curricular content of their children’s schools.
Streaming services are bad for music.
Varsity Only
The United States should implement a flat tax (varsity only)
2021 New York Debate League Championship
We are so proud of all our schools and students for participating in this year’s program! Congratulations to the ESU NYDL Middle School Debate team from The Dalton School in New York City for winning the 2021 Middle School Debate Championship, and to all of this year’s participants. Read more about this year’s season.
New Topics
Alice Uhl, ESU Education Programs Director
(212) 818-1200, ext. 212
Nick Smart
President
ESU New York Debate League
nickdavidsmart@gmail.com
“Debating in the ESU NYDL was one of the highlights of my students’ year. The ESU NY Debate League has been exceptionally welcoming and kind to us, and we are so appreciative of the high quality tournaments we were part of this year . . . they chose great topics, and created an environment where even in the most difficult situation imaginable, the kids were able to have high quality, spirited debates.”
– Mark Schiller Debate Coach for Blessed Sacrament School in Washington DC
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.
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.”