Trophies crowd the shelves and plaques line a wall in Room 806 at Emporia High School. Outside the door, trophies and plaques from the current year are displayed. EHS debaters just keep on winning.
“This is a place with a long and proud tradition,” said Scott Bonnet, who became EHS’s debate coach this school year. “One of the real draws of this place was the history, the tradition.”
Bonnet came to Emporia after four years as debate coach in McPherson. His son, Alex, a junior, is one of 42 teens on the debate squad. In Kansas debate, a 42-member squad is medium-sized, but there’s nothing average about the EHS debate program.
During the weekend 5A regional debate championship, held at EHS, the debate team placed first, with 10 winning ballots to second-place Shawnee Mission Bishop Miege’s 6 ballots. See results at right.
“I’ve known about this program literally all my adult life,” Scott Bonnet said. “I’ve always considered this one of the crown jewels of Kansas high school speech.”
That is high praise for a program in Kansas, where debate rules.
“It’s considered to be the prestige academic competition in this state,” Bonnet said. “... Kansas is really kind of the mecca for high school debate.”
After his arrival, Bonnet unpacked EHS’s treasure chest of old awards, dusted them off and showcased them in his classroom to inspire debaters and remind them of their predecessors’ successes. During the unpacking, he found an unexpected bonus.
“In the process, we actually discovered a state trophy that we didn’t know we had,” Bonnet said. And Bonnet’s students have been busy adding more.
A team comprised of Mary Yanik and Alex Bonnet will represent Kansas at the National Catholic Forensic League tournament in Houston in late May. If they happen not to be able to attend, EHS still will represent Kansas in the tournament. The first alternates for Yanik and Bonnet are Chase Ihde and Erica Bennett, also from EHS. They are not, however, the only winners at EHS.
Debaters from novices through veterans have brought fistfuls of tournament wins home this year, and Bonnet said he isn’t surprised.
The EHS squad attracts some of the brightest students in the school. They are willing to spend perhaps four hours a day researching their topics — both affirmative and negative sides — and keep that information literally up-to-the-minute by using the Google search engine to keep tabs on the latest news about their topics. Yanik, Ihde and Alex Bonnet, who sat in on an interview with Scott Bonnet last week, agreed that with information being continually updated and available to debaters and judges alike, it was both easier and more challenging to keep argument data fresh and accurate.
“I think that a lot of kids do debate and stick to debate because of the intellectual challenge .... So the kids who really like that kind of thing are really attracted to it,” Bonnet said.
Alex Bonnet said that as a result of debate research, his other classes are easier and his general knowledge is broader.
Yanik said she especially values the in-depth research skills she’s honed while doing research on the Internet. That results in better, broader information with all the detail she needs.
“I spend hours over something on a Google search that most people can’t do,” Yanik said.
Ihde and the others value the need to compile substantiating evidence to argue either side of the chosen topic.
“There really isn’t any stuff that’s set in stone,” Ihde said. “... This teaches you to look at it differently. It really helps develop your mind. You’re much more mentally fluid,” especially in processing language and information.
That ability is not always welcome outside Room 806.
“Sometimes we have teachers complain about these kids because they have a tendency to dominate discussions, question things,” Bonnet said. “...The kids who participate in this actually really do go on to be leaders in this country,” Bonnet said. They become successful businessmen, chief executive officers of Fortune 500 companies, state and national politicians, celebrities and other successful professionals.
“An exceptionally high percentage of those people tend to be former debaters,” he said.
All three debaters agreed that the relationships built through attending camps and debating peers from Kansas and across the country has been a boon for them. They’re exceptionally competitive during tournaments, but once the winners have been announced, Yanik said, the competitors become a support group. She was on the receiving side of that camaraderie when she and Alex Bonnet won the right to go to the national tournament in Houston.
“They say, ‘What is it we can do to help you, because we want you to represent Kansas well,’” Yanik said.
The pair will focus on preparing for Houston instead of beginning research on next year’s debate topic, as most debaters will be doing after last weekend’s regional tournament and the upcoming state high school debate tournament.
“I don’t want to sacrifice our season now when we’re not through with this yet,” said Yanik, who willgraduate this year from EHS. Her energies, for now, will be focused on research and preparation for the remaining high school debates and the nationals.
“It’s not always that much fun,” Alex Bonnet said of the work involved in debate. “But it just doesn’t feel right when you’re not doing it.”
doggiesrule (anonymous) says...
So proud of you guys! Keep the good things going for the bright kids!!
January 30, 2007 at 10:02 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )