Testimonials about the value of debate:
 "I think debating in high school and college a most valuable training whether for politics, the law, business, or for service on community committees such as the PTA and the League of Women Voters. A good debater must not only study material in support of his own case, but he must also, of course, thoroughly analyze the expected arguments of his opponent....The give and take of debating, the testing of ideas, is essential to democracy. I wish we had a good deal more debating in our institutions than we do now." --John F. Kennedy, former President of the United States
 ...I joined the debating team, which was sponsored by Mr. Virgil Parks, our Latin teacher. That's where I developed my speaking skills and learned to think on my feet. At first I was scared to death. I had butterflies in my stomach - and to this day I still get a little nervous before giving a speech. But the experience of being on the debating team was crucial. You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can't get them across, your brains won't get you anywhere."--Lee Iacocca, CEO of Chrysler
 “I learned how to think critically, how to develop arguments, how to speak clearly, and how to research.Everything I do – teaching, writing, and advocacy – uses these skills. Perhaps less obviously, I learned word economy which has been enormously valuable. . . . in teaching, sign-posting and labeling is much appreciated by my students. In doing media interviews, the conciseness that comes from word economy is invaluable in doing soundbites. Also, very importantly, as you know so well, debate forces one to be efficient in using one’s time and prepares one for juggling the many things we all must do."--Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of the University of California, Irvine School of Law "But I will tell you that, right there in the prison, debating, speaking to a crowd, was as exhilarating to me as the discovery of knowledge through reading had been. Standing up there, the aces looking up at me, the things in my head coming out of my mouth, while my brain searched for the next best thing to follow what I was saying, and if I could sway them to my side by handling right, then I had won the debate - once my feet got wet, I was gone on debating. Whichever side of the selected subject was assigned to me, I'd track down and study everything I could find on it. I'd put myself in my opponent's place and decide how I'd try to win if I had the other side; and then I'd figure a way to knock down those points." (Malcom X, 1984)--Malcolm X, famed advocate for African American rights
Check out these famous debaters!
- Samuel Alito, Supreme Court justice
- Floyd Abrams, First Amendment attorney
- Lamar Alexander, Governor of Tennessee and former Republican candidate for President
- Kofi Annan, former United Nations Secretary-General
- Stephen Breyer, Supreme Court justice
- Tom Brokaw, news anchor
- Jackson Browne, singer/songwriter
- Jimmy Carter, former President of the United States
- Marsha Clark, noted prosecutor
- Johnny Cochran, noted defense attorney
- Harry Connick, Jr., singer/songwriter
- Admiral Crowe, four star admiral and former Joint Chief of Staffs
- William Jefferson Clinton, former President of the United States
- Alan Dershowitz, noted attorney and Harvard law professor
- Thomas Foley, former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives
- Bob Graham, former Governor of Florida and U.S. Senator
- John Graham, Director of the Institute for Policy Studies at Harvard
- Phil Gramm, U.S. Senator and former Republican candidate for President
- Dr. Henry Heimlich, inventor of the Heimlich maneuver
- Arianna Huffington, liberal TV commentator
- Lee Iacocca, CEO of Chrysler
- Lady Bird Johnson, former First Lady of the United States
- Lyndon B. Johnson, former President of the United States
- Barbara Jordan, former member of the U.S. House of Representatives
- John F. Kennedy, former President of the United States
- Gerald Kogan, former Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court
- Allan Lichtman, political commentator and analyst
- Richard Lugar, U.S. Senator and former Republican candidate for President
- John Major, former Prime Minister of Great Britain
- Nelson Mandela, Nobel Peace Prize winner and former President of South Africa
- Michael Mazarr, Analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and Editor of the Washington Quarterly
- George McGovern, former U.S. Senator and Democratic Presidential candidate
- Zell Miller, former Governor of Georgia
- Richard Morris, former Political Advisor to President Clinton
- Edmund Muskie, former U.S. Senator and candidate for Vice President and Secretary of State
- Richard Nixon, former President of the United States
- Jane Pauley, news anchor
- Brad Pitt, Hollywood actor
- Ann Richards, former Governor of Texas
- Tom Ridge, former Pennsylvania governor and director of the Department of Homeland Security
- Hillary Rodham Clinton, current Secretary of State and former First Lady of the United States
- Susan Rook, News Anchor for CNN
- Theodore Roosevelt, former President of the United States
- Franklin D. Roosevelt, former President of the United States
- Karl Rove, former Deputy Chief of Staff and Republican Party political consultant
- Antonin Scalia, U.S. Supreme Court justice
- Ted Sorenson, Presidential speechwriter
- Michael Stipe, lead singer of REM
- Nadine Stroessen, former President of the ACLU
- Larry Summers, former economic advisor to the World Bank and Presidents Obama and Clinton
- G. Maxwell Taylor, former Joint Chiefs of Staff
- Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister of Great Britain
- Laurence Tribe, preeminent Constitutional law scholar
- Ted Turner, owner of CNN
- John Wayne, actor
- James Q. Wilson, preeminent political scientist and government scholar
- Woodrow Wilson, former President of the United States
- Oprah Winfrey, talk show host
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