Why Congressional Debate Is the Best Event for Life Skills
I was introduced to Congressional Debate when I was 14 years old. I’m 27 now, and after 13 years in this activity as a competitor, coach, and educator, I couldn’t be more convinced that Congress prepares you for life better than anything else.
Congress isn’t a debate event and it isn’t a speech event. It would be a disservice to try to fit it into either box. It is the ultimate hybrid — the ultimate bridge.
Speech events are phenomenal for teaching proper presentation, genuine emotion, and storytelling. In a world where AI will continue to become more prevalent and replace millions of jobs, speech skills are more important than ever before. You must be able to communicate effectively in a society where so many technical tasks will be automated away. The ability to tell a compelling story about yourself is more important than ever in the social media age. In a world full of fake news, fake ads, and fake personas, the ability to show your genuine and authentic self is invaluable.
Any Congress coach worth their salt teaches the same concepts. At Ascend, a significant portion of our curriculum is dedicated to these ideas. “Congress voice” is a quick way to become a perennial sems-drop, so students need genuine emotion. We explicitly teach this at Ascend — not just as a performance tactic, but as a core life skill. Students learn how to communicate authentically, speak with emotional intelligence, and present themselves in a world overwhelmed by AI‑generated content and artificial personas. Sloppy speaking cannot be overcome by great argumentation, so mastering fundamental delivery matters. And if you cannot tell the story of how people are impacted by legislation, you’ve lost the plot of the entire event.
Congress gives you every essential skill speech teaches — and then we cross the bridge to the debate side.
Public Forum, World Schools, Policy, and Lincoln-Douglas excel at teaching structured argumentation, evidence finding, and critical thinking — both in preparation and on the fly. These skills are essential in life. Recently, I’ve watched a lot of Jubilee’s One vs. 20 debates, and I understand the appeal: they’re undeniably entertaining. Charlie Kirk’s debates on the platform are especially telling. He defeats many opponents with structured argumentation. Many of his opponents brought strong emotion and solid points, but Charlie’s structure — developed through thousands of hours of debate experience — consistently powered him to victory. Those who performed well against him all shared one thing: a deep understanding of structure and organized argumentation. You can have all the right emotion and all the right evidence, but without structure, even in an unstructured debate, you will lose to someone who has it.
Speaking of evidence, debate teaches evidence ethics — understanding what is trustworthy, evaluating funding sources, dissecting methodology, and reading data correctly. One of my favorite moments is when a high schooler can explain why a fancy university study is methodologically flawed or point out a trend that contradicts an opponent’s interpretation. In a world where sports, Hollywood, and politics constantly fall victim to misinformation, we desperately need these skills.
Critical thinking — an area where the K–12 system increasingly struggles — is exactly what Congress strengthens. Studies and parent polling prove this. It’s gotten bad — but debate events are on the frontlines combating this problem. Our curriculum (a Congress Curriculum) teaches all of these skills in depth.
We do it in a unique way too. Congress covers more topics than any other event — economics, foreign policy, technology, education, ethics, social issues, constitutional law, public health, philosophy, and beyond. Students engage with a massive range of ideas at a pace few academic settings can match.
Congress is also inherently unpredictable. The chamber shifts direction instantly. Argument trends evolve in real time. A competitor’s speech right before yours can force a complete strategic pivot. Without immense adaptability, you simply cannot succeed. Students must listen deeply, think quickly, and adjust their approach on the fly — a skill that mirrors real‑world problem‑solving better than anything else.
This adaptability, exposure to diverse topics, and constant need for structural thinking is what makes Congress such a powerful life‑skills engine.
To succeed in Congress — and to truly become great — students must think critically in preparation and in-round. They must distinguish the real from the fake in order to build true arguments. Congress is chaotic at times, so they must provide structure where it’s lacking.
The beauty of Congress is that it takes the most useful and important parts from both sides of the bridge — speech and debate — and combines them.
I’ve been asked a few times whether my children will be required to do debate. I’ll never force them to be high-level circuit competitors; passion shouldn’t be coerced. But a few years of Congressional Debate will be mandatory. The skills are too important, and they define the future of our society.