Everyone has been there–a disagreement with the opinions of your friends, parents, siblings, or classmates can start an interesting discussion. You can walk away feeling enlightened, frustrated, or accomplished. But where can you go to have one of those discussions at school?

Lucky for you, Woodland’s attempt at a new debate team will serve as an outlet for students to talk about their opinions, while hearing the opinions of others, it will help them strengthen their debate skills so that they can have productive conversations with the people they encounter.

Al-Mamoun Saleh, the founder of the debate team, was inspired by a socratic seminar in Chris Tomlin’s freshman history class last year.

“The class was made up of twenty four students. Twenty three students chose one side and a single student chose the opposite side,” said Saleh.

“That single student happened to be me. I had a lot of fun that day.”

Saleh had the idea but now needed approval, a teacher advisor, and members.

“I had to go to Kurt Orgen’s office. I said, ‘I have an incredible idea–a debate team.’ Then he said, ‘Just send me a proposal letter and I’ll forward it to the superintendent.’”

After receiving approval from Principal Ogren, and Superintendent Michael Yamin, Saleh was ready to find a teacher advisor.

“I went from class to class, teacher to teacher, and I couldn’t find a single one. Until my saving grace, Meghan Geary, said yes,” said Saleh.

With that set, the last step was advertising and getting students to join.

Saleh was successful in his attempts and the Schoology group currently has 38 members. The team had its first meeting on February 23rd, in room 203 after school. The team plans to meet every month on a Wednesday. Saleh gave some insight on what the meetings will look like.

Saleh will spend the first few minutes discussing debate and its most important aspects,“I’ll give them a topic, time to research, then we’ll divide into groups and debate.”

He explained that in future meetings, students will have a say in what they debate. There will be a poll or discussion posted on the group’s Schoology page where members can vote. While students will get to choose which side they take, Saleh mentioned how it’s important to be prepared for anything.

“In your research, you have to play devil’s advocate, researching both sides’ weaknesses and strong points,” said Saleh. “I think that’s really crucial.”

“We’re referring to it as ‘maybe a debate team,” said Geary. “It’s kind of a trial, but I have agreed to help Al and the kids interested to see if we can have a debate team.”

She revealed that Woodland has seen an informal debate team in years past, but this will be Woodland’s first attempt at a formal debate team.

“I think that the debate team can help students in a number of ways. I have always thought that this was a piece that the school was missing,” said Geary. “Aside from helping students learn how to formulate an argument with sufficient and relevant evidence, I think the biggest benefit-that can help anyone-is the ability to build your confidence, to speak to other people, and to hold your own when being challenged by other people.”

Geary spoke about the fact that many students have busy schedules and are committed to a number of extracurricular activities including sports, honors societies, and clubs. One suggestion that she made was to add debate to the curriculum at Woodland.

“It can be really hard to juggle all of that. So, if we are talking about helping students develop these important skills,” said Geary. “Embedding it into the curriculum might be a really good way to go.”

Both Saleh and Geary wish to compete in the future

“If we were going to compete, that would not be something we would do until next year. But, competing is secondary. It is more important to focus on the students in the room and building their skills,” said Geary.

Overall, the team is excited and ready to begin its journey.

“We will be the best debate team in the world,” said Saleh. Sounds like that is one thing not up for debate.