Debate students air perspectives on policy on St. Louis radio[vsw id=”S8aV8mfRIJA” source=”youtube” width=”425″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”]

Political analysis and argument are no longer limited to the experts on NPR. A radio show featured speech and debate members Daniel Berkovich, Maddy Scannell, Jennifer Heiman and Mark Jewell as they discussed policy issues along with three students from Metro High School. They were hosted by Kristi Carson of 97.1 KTFK-FM, and the session aired on Oct 30.
The group got to offer their teenage perspective on the hot topics of this election season.
“I think it’s important that the opinions of youth are taken into account,” senior Daniel Berkovich said. “The future of America should be encouraged to discuss contemporary issues and brainstorm solutions.”
The subject matter was both complex and widely varied, so the sponsors weren’t surprised that the conversation ran long; almost 12 minutes had to be edited out before it went on air. Still, they couldn’t cover everything.
“I was a little disappointed that we didn’t get into important current issues like the Dakota Access Pipeline or the recent WikiLeaks [emails],” senior Maddy Scannell said. “We spent a lot of the time talking about the election and the state of politics in broad strokes.”
The topics covered a wide range, including the current presidential election, immigration, transgender issues, gun control and the criminal justice system. The participants were given a list of questions to look over beforehand so that they would know what was likely to come up in the conversation.
“I read over [the questions] to prepare,” Berkovich said. “I didn’t do any active research because the discussion wasn’t meant to be a debate or a statistics battle. I think that’s what I liked most about it: the ability to hear out the perspectives of different people from different schools in a casual, respectful manner.”
With so many controversial issues brought up, clashes of opinions were inevitable.
“There were a couple of times people disagreed, which was planned,” speech and debate coach Rob Proffitt said. “Everyone was prepared and very professional.”
Not only did the participants cope with the conflict, they welcomed the contradicting viewpoints and used their differences to enhance the discussion rather than detract from it.
“I was super excited that we had other debaters from Metro because they provided a unique perspective on racial issues in particular,” Scannell said.
Proffitt said this ability to deal with disagreement may come from the participants’ experience in debate.
“Debaters have the ability to see the entire issue,” Proffitt said. “They are able to see both sides and formulate an argument for either one. They are also able to discuss these hot-button issues and leave the emotion out of it. They can have these discussions in a very professional manner.”