Belize, Central America: Role of academic debate in an emerging democracy
Abstract
Many secondary school principals in Belize had expressed a desire and a strong need to start developing in their students the many and varied skills to be gained from participating in debate. The principals feel that the educational system of Belize is their greatest asset and that adding debate to their curriculum would make it even stronger. To help implement debate in Belize, the Director of Forensics at Ferris State University (Michigan) took a debate team to Belize to demonstrate forensics for the secondary school teachers and students. Before leaving for Belize, in addition to learning about the country for the 10-day trip, the team collected all of the debate and communications textbooks available for the students and teachers to use as reference material. The group travelled to many parts of Belize to lecture and demonstrate. In Corozal, the Belizean students were so eager that they participated in a debate with the Ferris team. It was obvious that Ferris State's efforts had been appreciated and would be a foundation for the Belizeans to build on for their future
Description
Annual Meeting of the Speech Communication Association, 75th, San Francisco, CA, 18-21 Nov., 1989