MIAMI URBAN DEBATE LEAGUE
Urban teenagers discover a passion for lively debates
Miami-Dade's Urban Debate League is giving hundreds of children -- most from inner-city schools -- a chance to find talents many didn't know they had.- Posted on Sun, Sep. 30, 2007
BY: LAURA MORALES
llmorales@MiamiHerald.com
Elijah Drinks-Covenas argued with dramatic flair and expansive gestures that ''a poor work environment negatively affects retention and performance of health workers'' sent to Africa.
''About half of all funds donated for health efforts in sub-Saharan Africa will never reach the clinics and hospitals at the end of the line,'' said the 17-year-old Booker T. Washington High junior. ``We're throwing money into a bucket with no bottom.''
When his time ran out, Maria Bastos of Miami Beach Senior High stepped up to the podium. ''The African healthcare system is doomed to failure without reinforcement of human resources,'' she said. ``We must act fast to implement this plan for the future of Africa and the world.''
The lively exchange on lofty global affairs took place at the University of Miami, where the Miami-Dade Urban Debate League held its first debate of the school year, bringing together scores of teens from inner-city high schools across the county. Students represented such high schools as Carol City, Northwestern, Miami Senior, Miami Central and South Miami.
Reading used to bore many of them, but after joining the Debate League, which was founded in 2005 and targets high-poverty schools, the kids can't get enough trophies, medals and admiration from peers and parents.
Anthony Bonamy, 16, a junior at Miami Central, said there's no feeling like it. ``It makes me look forward to becoming a lawyer.''
''Many of these students come from difficult home lives, sometimes they just have so little interest in learning,'' said Anthony Jennings, a retired attorney who now teaches history and coaches the Booker T. debate team. ``But it's amazing how their attitudes can change after they realize that they can do this.''
So the kids show up. They spend hours after school and on weekends poring over evidence packets, looking up articles on the Web and bouncing arguments off one another. And all of Jennings' debate kids have improved their reading skills and passed their FCATs. They've also formed a bond with their coach.
''I had a kid call me at night because of a fight at home between his mom and sister,'' Jennings said. ``We've become like a family.''
Barbara Garrett, director of Miami-Dade's league, said she is pleasantly surprised at how the program has taken off here. ''Kids end up recruiting other kids and asking teachers to get involved,'' she said.
Garrett said that in 2005, the program had between 65 and 70 high school participants. In 2006, that number jumped to almost 100, with a new middle-school program attracting close to 40 students.
Now there are about 122 advanced (or varsity) debaters and 104 junior varsity novices, with 110 middle-school members. ''If you engage the kids and challenge them with an activity they enjoy, they come back,'' she said.
Angelo Brooks, a Baltimore cop who coaches that city's top urban debate team, the Walbrook High School Warriors, has been helping Garrett run the Miami-Dade competitions.
'Even though it's hard to quantify, the impact debate has on the kids' lives is tremendous. We're affecting tens of thousands of students who have to learn about intricate social topics,'' Brooks said.
This year, the team to beat comes from Bay Point, an alternative boarding school for boys who have had problems at home or scrapes with the law. Michael Hinkle, 17, whose parents have long been either physically or emotionally unavailable, was running with a bad crowd and jacking cars, his debate coach Sophia Elder said.
Now he leads his team, which won the top prize last year, and wants to study law. ''I've changed my way of looking at life,'' Michael said during a break Saturday. ``You learn patience, respect and discipline. I want to help more kids in the same situation I was.''
The kids are still waiting to learn who won Saturday's top prize. ''The tabulation software crashed,'' Garrett said.
James Roland, who helped develop the first urban debate league in Atlanta's Emory University, said the best thing is hearing about the kids' newfound ambitions. ``I love it when they tell me, I want to change my community. I want to change the world.''
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