High School International Debate

About the High School International Debate Session

The Claremont program offers more in a single week than many 2-week summer debate programs offered in the US and abroad. The programs are organized to allow students to participate in one or both high school programs (High School International Debate and High School Leadership).

The International Debate Session teaches World Schools debate, used by secondary schools internationally, and British Parliamentary, which is the primary format for colleges and universities worldwide. This is the only U.S. summer program offering training in British Parliamentary which is essential for debating in college and university. Both programs will develop student’s skills in public speaking, argumentation, research, critical thinking, and teamwork.

The primary instructor and director of the summer program, John Meany, has a long history in British Parliamentary and World Schools Debating instruction and competition. In BP, his college teams have won hundreds of top awards in national and international competition, including the US National Championship. He founded the US intercollegiate BP national championship and hosted it for its first 3 years. He has served as a workshop director and faculty for BP training in Asia, Europe, and the Americas.

John Meany was the director/coach of the US WSDC program for more than 5 years. In addition, he created and coached the International Public Debate Program (IPDP), a WSDC-format US team for international events. The teams were successful in scores of WSDC model events, including the Eurasian Open (Turkey), New Zealand Round Robin, China Open (Shanghai), and European Open (Czech Republic). He has twice hosted and also won the Pan American Debating Championship. He has led WSDC instructional workshops for students and teachers in countries worldwide.

This summer, students will have the opportunity to learn competitive and professional skills in an innovative college bridge program offering the following:

• faculty are available for ‘table discussion’ during meal times – students may request a lunch or dinner discussion group on debate practice, topic preparation, research, subject-field issues (e.g., discussion on economics or international relations), current events, and more…guest faculty and field experts are often included in table discussions

• support for student professional communication in open forum and ancillary sessions and materials on effective public extemporaneous speaking, roundtable discussion, and PowerPoint presentation, including essay writing with staff from Claremont McKenna College’s Center for Writing and Public Discourse

• opportunity for high school students to participate in tournament tabulation and judge training certification for Middle School Public Debate Program leagues throughout the US (community service opportunity)

• meeting with college admissions staff for information on effectively navigating the college application process – the session includes but does not exclusively focus on admission to the Claremont Colleges or other highly selective liberal arts colleges; college admissions staff address selection and application to a broad range of colleges and universities, discuss the common application, and offer insight on academic and extracurricular evaluation, student essays, and developing strong teacher recommendations

• meeting featuring information on international debating – the Claremont Colleges Debate Union manages US international teams for upcoming tournaments and international debate exchanges in Canada, Mexico, Chile, Turkey, Korea, China, United Kingdom, Peru, Czech Republic, Germany, and Thailand

• flex time with more than 30 hours of available meal and recreational time to visit with established friends and make new ones…the summer debate program is intensive, challenging, and fun.

Summer programs are for in-residence and commuter students. Students entering 9th-12th grades in Fall 2025 are eligible to participate in high school sessions. Programming is organized for experienced students and those new to academic and professional debating, public speaking, and argumentation. Comprehensive instruction includes small group sessions, elective classes, open forums, and practice debates.

The Curriculum

The summer program provides comprehensive debate training. Students participating in the high school sessions receive small group instruction and elective course instruction (4-1 student-faculty ratio) in public speaking, argumentation, refutation, dynamic format elements (Points of Information and/or heckling), debate and argument theory, and topic-based research and advanced applied strategy and tactics. In addition, they participate in debates critiqued by program/institute certified judges.

There is optional/elective time for student-directed learning. Debaters have the opportunity to have their questions answered at the end of each day. They can also get a jump-start on the following day’s debate activities, have extended theory and practice discussions, learn about other debate formats and methods. This happens in open forum sessions. Select debates use pre-announced topics (students prepare for the issues in advance – this ensures that ‘topic-based knowledge is less of a factor in the debates and debaters/judges may use the practice session to concentrate on format, public speaking/organization, POIs and/or heckling, argumentation and refutation techniques, strategies/tactics, and theory skills).

The Schedule

Students receive a detailed schedule of their daily instructional and practice events during registration. In the interim, there are schedule templates (below) for family and student planning.