The Texas Debate Collective began in the summer of 2009 with the goal of offering an affordable debate camp to students who would not otherwise be able to attend a debate program. The Texas Debate Collective organized a camp compromised of a largely volunteer based staff with a majority of campers receiving scholarships. Over the past two years T.D.C. has held camps in both the winter and in the summer. The camp has expanded both the number of students served and its network of staff members committed to making debate an educational activity accessible to all.
In the summer of 2011 T.D.C. held its most successful summer camp to date extending a previously one-week camp to last two full weeks. This extension allowed staff members to cover a wider variety of topics with much greater depth and provide students with practice opportunities on par with tuition funded debate camps. Texas Debate Collective also began implementing a curriculum which differentiates instruction by breaking apart complicated skills into spiraled sessions.

What are we proposing?

With the close of our 2011 camp, we are beginning to plan for the summer of 2012 in which we anticipate the largest expansion of the camp to date with the addition of a teachers’ institute. This will not only bring an entire new division to the camp, but we also anticipate that it will greatly increase our number of students because teachers’ tend to bring more students with them if they are coming themselves.  The teachers’ institute will offer professional development to debate coaches around the country, with the focus on recruiting and offering free admission to the teachers of low-income schools who can in turn enhance the instruction of their own students. We also hope to be able to raise enough funds such that we can create an incentive structure for debate programs that send coaches to the teachers’ institute. Those teachers that successfully complete the program will receive a donation to their debate program so that their students will be able to use the skills they learned at camp in debate tournaments throughout the year.

Why is it important?

The driving purpose of the Texas Debate Collective is the belief that the skills fostered by participation in high school debate are among the most valuable that our students will acquire during their high school career. Students constantly practice and build skills in critical thinking, public speaking, and argument analysis. We feel that these skills are presented in a particularly rigorous manner because the research and building of argumentation required by debate necessitates that students engage with college level readings in philosophy and political science, strategies for writing with style, and rigorous justification of arguments in written and oral delivery.

We can be reached by snail mail at 1245 Hershey Ln. Lewisville, Tx 75077