Debate Topics for Students of all Ages

by A Guest Author

Debating provides a number of benefits to students at all levels of learning, from elementary school to college. Engaging in interesting and prudent debate topics helps students learn public speaking skills, research skills, analytical skills and how to compose quality notes. Mastering the art of public speaking helps people to better express themselves at work, in social situations or in job interviews. The analytical, research and listening skills required of a great debater are also useful life skills that can be applied in many different life situations. In addition to providing students with helpful life skills, debating can also be extremely fun, and it helps students to build meaningful friendships and develop a levelheaded approach to dealing with controversial topics. While it may be difficult to stage debates face-to-face, it can be both easy and efficient to practice debating online.

Debate Topics for Elementary Students

Selecting appropriate debate topics for elementary students is not always easy. Grade school students are not mature enough, nor experienced enough, to deal with intense or controversial subject manner. Also, deeply intellectual topics may contain concepts that are too difficult for younger students to grasp. Debating for elementary students must be fun, lively and interesting, along with being educational at the same time. Some good topics of debate for elementary school students include: whether or not violence in video games causes real life violence, whether or not children should wear school uniforms, whether or not students should be allowed to use cell phones at school or whether or not there is life on other planets.

Topics to Debate for High School and College Students

High school and college student debaters are generally at a sufficient intelligence and maturity level to deal with much more controversial and demanding subject matter. Older students can thoughtfully express themselves in more concise and collected ways that younger students usually cannot. Some good topics to debate for high school and college students include: whether or not the death penalty is effective at deterring crime, whether or not humans are completely responsible for global warming, whether or not the drinking age should be increased or decreased, whether or not gay people should openly serve in the military or whether abortions should be legal or illegal.

Participating in debates, either in-person or online, helps students of all ages develop better critical thinking skills and increases their world awareness. There is no shortage of viable topics to debate, with many controversial and hotly contested topics that are constantly in the news. Online debating is a fantastic and relatively easy way to hone a student's various skills, learn new concepts and deal with difficult topics in a mature and measured manner that is likely to help them significantly as they advance in their schooling and beyond.

About The Author

Kristen Bradley is a principal for Debate.org, a leading online community and debate forum. Choose from thousands of debates and voice your opinion today!

This post was written by A Guest Author

This post was written by a guest author. If you have high quality, useful information to share with students, send us an email or click Write For Us to learn more. And in case you're wondering - yes, you can promote yourself in this fancy author byline.

{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }

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Chad Agrawal October 18, 2012 at 9:47 pm

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