President Biden’s choice for the U.S. Supreme Court is a graduate of a Florida public high school, where she was a member of the debate team. Justice Jackson has described her participation on the debate team as a crucial factor in her intellectual development. Debate taught her critical thinking skills, writing, speaking, and self-confidence. The school still exists but the Governor and Legislature have done everything possible to destroy the state’s public schools by favoring charters and vouchers and diverting billions of public school dollars to “choice.”
PINECREST, Fla. — Let Miami Palmetto Senior High School brag for a moment: It has a swoon-worthy alumni roster. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, class of ’82. Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, the U.S. surgeon general, class of ’94. And Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court, class of ’88.
Decades have passed since Jackson, 51, was a stellar student at Palmetto, a large public school nestled among the palm trees of the South Florida suburbs. But the school held outsize importance in her life, thanks to a competitive speech and debate team led by a famed coach who molded her protégés into sharp-tongued speakers and quick critical thinkers.
“That was an experience that I can say without hesitation was the one activity that best prepared me for future success in law and in life,” Jackson said at a lecture in 2017.
From the tightknit and wonky debate team emerged accomplished professionals who remain unusually close 30 years later. (Jackson’s prom date? A guy who would become a U.S. attorney, the chief federal prosecutor in Miami.) Now the team offers a glimpse into how Jackson’s early life led to a Supreme Court nomination — and how her success is inspiring a new generation of debaters to dream big.
“I learned how to reason and how to write,” she said in the lecture, “and I gained the self-confidence that can sometimes be quite difficult for women and minorities to learn at an early age.”
One former teammate, Craig Tinsky, who is a visual artist in Washington, D.C., recalled Jackson delivering a powerful speech about confronting and overcoming fears, as well as a humorous interpretation of the Neil Simon play “Fools” that had the audience in stitches.
Jackson has spoken often, including in her 2013 swearing-in as a judge, about how much high school meant to her. She was the class president and has helped organize class reunions. But above all, she was a top debater.
Not everything was easy. As a 17-year-old, she sat on a panel discussion about race and ethnic relations and recounted having a drama teacher tell her she would not be able to win a role in a play because it was about a white family.
“If you don’t talk about it, you never deal with it,” she said of prejudice in the school, where the student body was 73% white, 16% Black and 11% Hispanic.
Jackson grew up in what she has described as a predominantly Jewish suburb of Miami, attending her friends’ bar and bat mitzvahs. At the time, Palmetto was in an unincorporated residential neighborhood known as East Kendall that is now the upscale village of Pinecrest.
As a proud, retired South Florida HS teacher, I am thrilled that a local student has risen to such heights as a Supreme Court Justice nominee. I have always felt that a Debate course should be a prerequisite for every student before graduating HS. But more importantly, it should be mandatory for anyone who wants to become a public official, administrator, or anyone in a position of authority. If we all were forced to defend our positions on every issue we have influence over, or just merely comment about among friends or family, the world would be a much better place. Even more importantly, Debate courses make you take both positions on issues–those positions you may favor as well as those you may oppose. If we all were forced to try to see an issue from an opposing point of view, imagine how much more intelligent, civil and reasonable our discourse would be. If only…….
Lovely and Encouraging For All Teachers at a time we REALLY need it.
Debate definitely helps with confidence and the ability to argue persuasively from many different angles. I remember this somewhat ruefully when I’m arguing with my daughter, who did debate.
Debate team participation teaches students how to frame an argument, develop a strategy and gain confidence in public speaking. It engages the whole student, both cognitive and social-emotional. These are the types of activities that develop real thinking, and more students should participate. Our students need deep learning in stead of just prepping for online tests that mean nothing in the real world. Learning to debate is a skill that can benefit all students, even if they do not have a future in law. It is a life skill.
Although I will say they talk absurdly fast these days. It’s kind of insane.
In some debating formats, it’s advantageous to speak fast — there is even a name for it — “spreading!”
That’s why they do it—because it’s advantageous. But it’s absurd, and lay judges can’t understand a word of it.
FLERP!,
If lay judges can’t understand a word of it, why are they awarding points to it?
If judges didn’t reward spreading, the debaters would not do it.
(FYI, not all debating formats reward this.)
Not all debates have lay judges. When they do, debaters slow it down a bit. But still not enough in my view.
it is important to note that wealthier schools usually have big debate team budgets and participation while in poorer schools debate is often cut in budget fights, or never offered
This is true, but also important to note that debating is one of the least expensive extracurricular activities! The most disadvantaged schools can have teams because there is no need for expensive equipment. Lots of volunteer coaching as well. And during covid, many tournaments went on-line, so there weren’t even travel costs.
NYC has an incredible Urban Debate League which includes many public schools that serve primarily low-income students.
The problem with debate is that it makes the “rightness” of an issue dependent upon the skill of the debater and not the inherent values in the argument itself. Questions like slavery, LGBT rights, war, etc. boil down to rhetorical sleights of hand rather than understanding that no, it’s not okay to own human beings, all people should have equal human rights, and war is always a racket.
Actually there are many different debating formats. Learning how to sharpen your reasoning and learning how to address the points the other side is making instead of just making ad hominem arguments or using logical fallacies is important. It’s a shame that Americans believe that Republicans who shout the loudest and insult the meanest are making the most convincing arguments.
I see your point, but the problem with debating against debating is that you’re debating.
lol! Brilliant
“inherent values”- describing war as a racquet- an expression without conscience
A debate about whether it’s ok to own human beings would be an interesting exercise, in my opinion. Although I’m sure it would get me fired as a debate coach.
Would a debate about whether it’s ok for men to own women be an “interesting exercise” to you?
Seems like it’s subsumed in the “human beings” one, but sure, it might be.
I fear many in the progressive world agree with Dienne. Debate is triggering. It’s a barrage of harmful microaggressions. And using reason to arrive at truth is a trick the oppressors use to control the oppressed. Debate seems to be dying in universities and it’s only a matter of time that this will trickle down to K-12.
Why public universities are better than religious schools- Georgetown Catholic University hired Koch’s Ilya Shapiro. The University of California Hastings public law school has a Federalist Society that invited Shapiro to speak. Students showed the campus community and all of us that tweets like –lesser, Black women- are non-starters. Those who want to spread their unconscionable views among an audience that respects women and races as equal have no place among them.
You think Ilya Shapiro was at Hastings to “spread his view” that black women are inferior?
When you invite someone to speak – pay someone to speak – it is an endorsement. Not of their views, but it is an endorsement of them as someone whose views are worth listening to and that the person is someone of integrity.
It’s why no one says “hey, let’s listen to OJ Simpson speak at our law school, I am sure he has something very important to say about the corrupt policing in LA.” It presents OJ Simpson as someone worth listening to whose words have value.
There are other people who have the same position whose words actually have value. Liars, racists, abusive husbands and possibly murderers do not. If one wants to have that discussion, it doesn’t need OJ Simpson.
It’s like presenting Donald Trump to give a speech about how to establish new universities. Or Donald Trump being paid to make a speech about how much good work charitable foundations can do.
Maybe the Federalist Society will pay him to do that. Or pay the leader of the American Nazi Party to talk about the importance of civility.
What, you think the leader of the American Nazi Party wants to spread his view that white folks are superior? How dare you! That’s not what he will be speaking about. He will simply be offering his insightful take on how good it is to have a civil society. He will simply be presented as an important voice to listen to. And I assume that’s something you would support, in the name of “freedom”.
Not now.
NYC-
What we have to fear from Catholic organization employers like Georgetown University is explained in the March-April 2022, Mother Jones article, “Rightwing activists hellbent on transforming Catholic Church”. Catholic organizations are the 3rd largest U.S. employer.
Every kid should take debate. I coached for 9 years with an all 9th grade team. They were remarkable and learned so much. They became better writers and thinkers. Hugely important and coaches get almost no pay. I did 125 hours a year for $500 or less per year.
Debate seems to have been canceled at teaching conferences like the one I’m currently at. Every session hews to the party line. Teach social justice standards that parrot Kendi; there is no opposing view point presented. Virtually every session exhorts us to teach using the inquiry method and project based learning despite research showing serious issues with those approaches, but you’d never know it because only one side is allowed to be represented. Indoctrination is the enemy of debate and indoctrination is winning.