The Debate

Nobody at Mesa Verde High School in San Diego expected much from the debate team. It had only been founded the year before, it had four members, and it practiced in a science lab that smelled permanently of chemicals. Although the students were enthusiastic, they had lost every single competition in their first season, usually by a large margin.

The four of them could hardly have been more different. Marisol was brilliant at research but hated speaking in public. Kevin loved speaking in public but rarely knew what he was talking about. Aisha argued with everyone about everything, including the teachers, and Ben, the youngest, was so quiet that the others sometimes forgot he was in the room. Despite their differences, they had become close friends.

Everything changed when Ms. Okafor became their coach. She had been a lawyer for fifteen years before she started teaching history, and she had no patience for excuses. On her first day, she listened to them practice for ten minutes and then closed her notebook. "You all talk," she said. "None of you argue. The judges don't care how loud you are. They care whether you have answered the other side."

Her training was strict. They met three afternoons a week and on Saturday mornings, even during the holidays. She made Kevin research every topic in detail so that he would never again stand up without evidence. She made Aisha listen to her opponents for two whole minutes before she was allowed to respond. In order to help Marisol overcome her nerves, she made her give a short speech every day, first to the empty lab, then to the team, and finally to a whole class of confused freshmen.

As for Ben, Ms. Okafor noticed something that nobody else had. Although he rarely spoke, he wrote down every point the other team made, and his notes were perfect. She made him the team's final speaker, the one who sums up the debate at the end. Ben was horrified. However, she refused to change her mind. "You hear everything," she told him. "That is the most important skill in this room."

The results came slowly. They lost their first two competitions of the new season, though by much smaller margins than before. Then they won a regional round, mostly so that they could say they had won something. To everyone's surprise, they kept winning. By March, despite having less experience than almost every other school, Mesa Verde had reached the state final in Sacramento.

The topic of the final was whether cities should ban cars from their centers. Mesa Verde had to argue in favor, while their opponents, a private school that had won the title three times, argued against. The other team was polished and confident. Their speakers quoted statistics, made jokes and spoke without notes. Kevin, who used to think that confidence was everything, suddenly understood how it felt to be on the other side.

But Ms. Okafor's training had worked. Marisol's research was so thorough that every statistic the other team used had already been answered in her notes. Aisha waited, listened and then calmly pointed out that two of their opponents' arguments contradicted each other. Kevin spoke clearly and only about things he could prove. And then it was Ben's turn.

He walked to the front with his hands shaking. Even so, his voice was steady. He went through the whole debate point by point, explaining what each side had claimed, which arguments had been answered and which had been ignored. He spoke for exactly four minutes, so that he would not run out of time. When he sat down, the room was silent.

Mesa Verde did not win the trophy. The judges decided, by two votes to one, in favor of the other school. However, Ben was named best speaker of the final, and one of the judges wrote on her score sheet that his summary was the clearest she had heard all year. On the long bus ride home, nobody seemed disappointed. Ms. Okafor, who never praised anyone, said only one thing: "Next year, Saturday mornings start at eight." Nobody complained. Not even Aisha.