May 15, 2023 At 02:14 PM EDT
Josh Hirsch, 47, was introduced to debate through his wife, Sara Hirsch, who was a debate coach at Denver Center for International Studies for eight years. She invited Hirsch, a high school English teacher, to judge one of the tournaments where her team was competing, and he was hooked on the sport.
"I was a soccer player [in high school], I had zero interest in debate," Hirsch told Newsweek. "I actually thought most of the debaters that I knew in high school were kind of nerds. It wasn't until I actually went to my first tournament that I fell in love with it."
Before becoming a debate coach, Hirsch said he thought the high school competitions would be like the political debates he'd watched on television, "where people talked about nothing while saying a lot."
But instead of people standing at opposite podiums yelling over each other about politics, Hirsch discovered that high school debates were substantive.
"Students were diligent and articulate and had this just incredible voice and incredible passion for what they were doing," he said.
Debate, he found, was completely in line with his core principles as a teacher helping students find their voice and express it in the world.
From then on, he became the debate coach for the Mapleton Public Schools in Denver, a member of the Denver Urban Debate League (DUDL).
The team is open to all students in ninth through twelfth grade in the "small-by-design" Mapleton School District, and it participates in both debate and speech competitions, according to the district website.
DUDL began in 2008 with the aim of breaking barriers for underserved students by "enriching educational and personal outcomes for students of color and low-income students," according to the league's website.
"I'm a complete devotee of Urban Debate and what it does and the opportunities it makes available for young people from more high-poverty backgrounds," Hirsch said.
Jessica Clark, the executive director of DUDL, said Hirsch has been "super dedicated" as a coach and mentor to students in the district.
"I feel really grateful to him because as we moved through this pandemic and things were very uncertain, especially for an activity that really seems to rely on people being together, Josh was one of the coaches that really stayed committed and enthusiastic and passionate," she said.
At a time when both students and educators were being asked to do more than ever before, Clark said Hirsch stayed committed to maintaining programing and keeping his students engaged, including participating in the National Association for Urban Debate Leagues' (NAUDL) public debate program I RESOLVE.
Hirsch doesn't just coach debate after school and at weekend tournaments, he implements it into his classroom curriculum.
Every year, he holds at least one debate in his classes where he gives the students the choice of topics like abortion or dress code. The catch—he chooses which side they're going to debate.
"I think it's so important that you can debate both sides of an issue, especially an issue that you're passionate about, so you can have compassion for what your opponent is saying," he said.
Hirsch said teaching students to have compassion and understanding for people with whom they disagree is critical.
"I think it's so important that somebody who's adamantly pro-choice can at least understand why somebody would be pro-life," he added. "You don't have to agree with them, you don't like what they're saying, but you can at least go, 'OK, that's a valid point.'"
Competitive debate is a hefty commitment after school and on the weekends, making the activity less accessible for students who are already heavily involved or have other work or family obligations.
Clark said incorporating debates during class time gives students the chance to engage with each other after a shift to virtual interactions made interpersonal communication "a lost art form."
It also allows students to harness key skills, such as analytical thinking, compassion and reasoning.
"I think that's sort of the way to get to real-world solutions, especially in our current political climate," she said.
These debates also serve as a recruitment opportunity—an area that continues to be a challenge for the coach. At the beginning of the school year, Hirsch will do a debate-like activity to get students speaking and help him identify students he thinks will be great debaters.
"A lot of times, students have absolutely zero knowledge about public speaking or the issue that we're talking about," he said. "If they've got the raw skills, I can teach them the specific skills."
Teaching debate form, content and strategy to a novice is like "drinking water through a firehose." While the basic skills can be picked up quickly, Hirsch said mastering the activity takes two to four years.
To make debate feel more accessible, Hirsch makes his current debate students the face of the recruitment efforts.
"[My students] tell me I talk too much—I feel like that's the nature of teenagers and adults," he jokes. "I try to let the students lead and I let the students be the ones who are doing the recruiting. It's the students going out there and saying, 'You should do this.'"
Part of convincing students to join debate is explaining to them the immense benefits associated with participating in the activity, including self-advocacy and confidence.
"The ability to get up there and say, 'No, this is what I believe, and you're gonna have to deal with me about that,'" Hirsch said.
Debate also fosters a sense of community. Hirsch said there is a large population of Mapleton students from Latin America or who are first-generation Americans or of Latin American decent.
Hirsch said he hopes DUDL will develop more programing for Spanish-speakers to participate in debate to further build that sense of community and make debate more accessible to students.
Two of those students include Ruby Trejo Ontiveros and Alliton Flores Sanchez, juniors from York International School who participated in the launch of Newsweek's partnership with NAUDL in April.
Trejo Ontiveros was born in Florida but lived in Mexico until she returned to the United States five years ago. Flores Sanchez was born in Mexico and moved to the U.S. as a young child. While English is not their first language, they have been able to excel at debate in Denver.
The students credit part of that success to their coach's compassion and understanding.
"He's really nice to everyone," Trejo Ontiveros said. "He's really kind to people that, like, are struggling."
Flores Sanchez said Hirsch also serves as a mentor who makes the debate team feel like a family.
"He has guided us, and teachers really teach us a lot," she said. "We really appreciate that because he's been our mentor and hopefully throughout our lives, we'd love to have him as a mentor."
They also remarked on his humor, noting that "his dad jokes are always fun." Hirsch's positive energy has made him a great coach and colleague.
"He's really contributed a lot in terms of mentoring newer coaches and being very thoughtful about his coaching practices," Clark said.
Hirsch's students are not the only ones benefiting from this relationship. Clark said Hirsch has gained a lot from coaching debate.
"Josh is one of the coaches who I feel like coaching debate makes him a better classroom teacher. I also think it's made his experience as an educator more rewarding," she said. "It's really cool to see debate be something that makes teachers more excited to continue teaching and perhaps keep some young teachers teaching longer because they're developing relationships with students. And I think Josh is a really good, like, example of that."
