How We Do Debate Without a Homeschool Community

We decided not to be a part of our beloved CC community this year, but I still wanted my teen to learn debate. So how would we do debate without a homeschool community? After all, one of the major benefits of CC community was that it kept us accountable to do all the things that we weren't naturally bent to do like debate, and Latin, and logic... This had been true for years, so would we find a way to do debate on our own?

I did some research on debate curriculums, then previewed, and finally purchased the NCFCA handbook for Value Debate and my tenth grader and are working through it together. We have chosen our own issue to debate and work through both sides of it, learning as we go. 

We definitely need to practice self-discipline and do this ourselves without the support (and compulsion) that community provided. But it's working. We work through the lessons together, reading aloud, and taking time to talk everything through. We research and discuss ideas and research some more... 

It's nice not to be rushed. In previous years, we were working on a community schedule rather than our own. Debate was always a hectic pain. So it's nice not to have my teen stressed out about debate. She used to consider my questions and advice an imposition, delay, or hinderance to getting all her work done in time for community, etc. Now that I'm my daughter's only debate partner and teacher, and now that her work doesn't have to be done by a certain day next week, we are both relaxing, embracing and even enjoying the time spent wrestling through the issue mind to mind and heart to heart. 

The NCFCA handbooks are amazing resources, and I wish I had found them years ago instead of struggling through debates in previous years with the resources we had then. I thought we all just hated debate for years, but I think we just hated being asked to do something without enough information. 

Obviously, without a community to join in debate, my daughter may never have the opportunity to debate another student live. But I'm not sure I consider that I huge loss. My major goals for doing debate are to practice seeking truth, thinking through both sides of an issue, researching, organizing thoughts, and applying what we find out to our own hearts and minds first, and all that is happening on a deeper level now. 

I trust that this authentic practice in debate will bear fruit, and when my daughter finds it necessary to stand up and speak up, she'll have what it takes.  

Now, we practice debate simply for its own sake, and we are finding it truly worthwhile.