WUDL ES Program Grows Again in Spring 2025
The beauty of elementary school debate is where students are in their growth and development. They’re incredibly creative, and are too young to know that some of their “impossible” ideas aren’t worth considering. They’re capable of a lot more than we expect every single year, and work harder and are more invested than some of our older debaters. — WUDL Director David Trigaux after attending 3 ES Debate practices in one day.
Five years in, we’re excited to work with these students as they build their own culture and define what debate means for them and why it excites them.
Big shout out to Yu Ying for hosting us on short notice this year. We are excited to get more ES schools to host and rotate this opportunity around the city.
ES Debate came about a few years ago thanks to Coach Kip Plaisted (Stuart Hobson). He wasn’t satisfied that he had one of the largest and most successful Middle School debate teams in the country (which has now been in the semi-finals or better of Middle School Nationals for five years in a row). He wasn’t satisfied that they are the only Middle School team to ever win the WUDL Sweepstakes Cup. He wasn’t satisfied with a team with a strong team culture that was set up for long term success. And he wasn’t satisfied that he’d won all of the Coaching Awards we provide!
Many schools try to work with their feeder patterns, trying to get incoming students excited and ready for the next step in their academic journey. Coach Plaisted wanted in on the action, working with his school’s elementary school students and get them excited to join the Hobson debate team the following Fall. We’ve supported him during the COVID era to do some great pilot programs in his feeder pattern, but have gotten more ambitious now that we’re back in person.
ES students read a book, “Emmy in the Key of Code,” which is written in poetry, not prose. This unique literary approach proved wildly popular for our youngest scholars as they prepared arguments about whether Middle Schools should have STEM focused curriculums. The arguments ranged from considerations of Artificial Intelligence on both sides, the future of work, student preference and engagement. My personal favorite, was an incredibly internally consistent case about overloading developing minds with new information that would cause them to forger important things like how to breath or walk (if they’d ever seen a biology textbook or done some more research on the science of memory, this would have been a killer).
The tournament was judged by existing WUDL debaters, many middle and high school students getting their first opportunity to get behind the table and judge instead of being the competitors themselves.
Ludlow Taylor, coached by 5th year veteran ES Debate Coach and Spanish Teacher Miranda Metheny were our champions again this year, despite the fact that Miranda almost didn’t do the program, as she is expecting this summer.
We had four undefeated teams, with Magnolia and Cecelia edging out teammates Audrey and Alexandra, Mathis and Mael, and Yael and Elle from Mann.
We want to shout out every school’s top performers:
- Janney: Ella and Logan
- John Francis: Ruby and Aria
- Ludlow Taylor: Cecelia and Magnolia
- Mann: Elle and Yael Payne : Riley and Alden (top speaker)
- Plummer: XiYon and Louis
- Watkins: Izzy and Ans
- Yu Ying: Helena and Sadie
We’re excited to see these young scholars move up to debate in Middle School, with many signed up already for the Matthew Harris Ornstein Summer Debate Institute. We expect to further expand the program with more schools and more students in the Fall. Coach Plaisted has already chosen a book, so stay tuned!
Great job to the debaters, and welcome to the WUDL family!
Shout out to all the great older students who helped out as judges: Yakin, Maite, Gary, Daniella, James, Alexander, Darby, LeaAnn, Claudia, Chloe, Coda, Parker, Ian, Max, Henry, James, Victoria, Eden, Henri, Jack, Sage, Anna, Louise, Penelope, Bobby, Maddie, Marshall, and Diego!
