Living a Life Less Ordinary

I volunteer for the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA or the Y) of Manila. My mother has been brought up by the Y to be one of their student leaders, even sending her on her first trip abroad to Ghana, Africa to attend the International Women’s Congress when she was just 17 years old. In gratitude, my mother has dedicated her time to helping the Y fulfill its vision of “a fully inclusive world where justice, peace, health, human dignity, freedom and care for the environment are promoted and sustained through women’s leadership.” The extension of her help is manifested by occasionally dragging her only daughter to YWCA events until one day, her daughter is so overwhelmed by the work that the women in the organization do that she finally comes to love the Y herself. Such is my story.

So when, in celebration of the YWCA of Manila’s 90th year, the Board of Directors decided they wanted to conduct a debate seminar and tournament for public high schools in the City of Manila, and when my mother woke me up one morning, fresh from the Board Meeting, and told me that I would convene it, I sleepily, but unhesitatingly, said yes.

I’ve convened tournaments before, I thought. This could be easy. In college, as a varsity member of the La Salle Debate Society, we would conduct national and international debate tournaments for high school students. This would be a piece of cake.

Boy, was I wrong.

The cause of the Y is always noble. It only wishes to provide opportunities for the community to improve their lives and learn by doing. It seeks to give people the tools so that they may equip themselves. The YWCA of Manila saw the need for the youth of Manila to gain a deeper understanding of the world around them. These kids were high potential student leaders who could one day very well be influential people in the nation, but were not given the opportunity to improve themselves outside of academic and sports competitions. Often times, these were kids whose only source of information was Facebook, or social media, and did not have anybody to filter this news with them, or anybody to converse with to present a different perspective. In this day and age of news being easily faked, and of ultra left or ultra right opinion-makers, the Y felt the need for students to develop a keen and critical mind in seeking out information and discussing issues with people who may or may not agree with them, so that they may form their own informed decisions.

The challenge though is to find a format and a venue to do this that can remain interesting to students. In the debate tournaments that we used to convene, the students already know how to debate and are already invested in the sport, so there is no real need to draw in any more interest. In this case, however, because it has never been done before in the public high school circuit, we have to generate the interest. And for someone who’s been debating for a good 9 years? I’ve forgotten what it’s like to be looking at debate for the very first time, and what it takes to get someone to fall in love with it.

I enlisted the help of my teammates in the La Salle Debate Society, both the alumni and the current generation. We decided to create a program where we would spend one weekend teaching kids how to debate, give them a month to practice and train amongst themselves, and spend another weekend a month after for the debate tournament. We called the project, “The YWCA Cup”.

The YWCA Cup is actually on its second year now. We invite various junior and senior public high schools in Manila to send representatives from their schools to join the competition. We spend a Saturday and a Sunday teaching the kids the fundamentals of debate in a seminar workshop conducted by members of the La Salle Debate Society. We discuss with them they format of a debate, proper argumentation and rebuttal, adjudication, and manner and public speaking. We also invite one of our senior alumni to give an inspirational talk to the kids and tell them how debate has truly changed their lives, as it will theirs. We end Saturday with a demonstration debate from the current members of the Society, just so the kids have a better and more visual understanding of how a debate is conducted. We spend the second day conducting a workshop to allow the kids to practice what they’ve learned and for them to get a feel of an actual debate round, without the pressure of competition just yet. We again end Sunday with a demonstration debate, this time from representatives from the different schools in attendance. We give them the possible themes for the debate rounds in the tournament so they have time to read up on these topics. And finally, we send them on their way to train themselves before the competition.

During the tournament proper, schools compete in teams of three. Debates are conducted simultaneously, and in each room, there are two competing teams – Government and Opposition. Our debate motions range from topics on education, sports, law, the environment, war and geo-politics, and economics. There are four rounds in total which are pre-eliminations. Teams with the top 8 highest number of wins move on to the elimination rounds – the Quarterfinals, Semifinals, and Finals. As a team loses in the eliminations, they drop out and are no longer able to compete in the following round, and the winners move on, until only two teams remain to compete in the Finals. Last year, we had 24 teams and 12 rooms competing. This year, we have 28 teams and 14 rooms competing. In 2016, Cayetano Arellano High School bagged the Championship, while this year, in 2017, Manila Science High School dominated the tournament. I should mention that the Runner-up of the tournament receives PHP 15,000 and their adviser receives PHP 6,000, while the Champions receive PHP 21,000 and PHP 8,000 for the adviser, cash prizes all sponsored by the YWCA as an incentive and come-on for the schools to enter the tournament.

In the two years that we’ve been conducting the YWCA Cup, many teachers and students have come up to me expressing their joy in learning debate. It provides them with a far different experience from the usual academic quiz bees and leadership seminars that kids are used to having. Moreover, because debate is conversation and dialogue, the kids are able to make new friends out of their opponents from different schools, and understand and respect their varied opinions, cultures, and mindsets. But most importantly, the kids come out of it enriched, with a greater appreciation for issues outside the four walls of their classrooms, and more empathy and a feeling of solidarity for the plight of people even halfway across the world from them. This is the kind of youth we can hope to raise, a youth that is enlightened and understanding, a youth that is not scared to voice out their concern, and a youth that can search for the answers to the world’s problems.

This year, I gathered some of the feedback from the YWCA Cup from the kids who participated:

For some, it was the opportunity to make new friends. For others, it was overcoming their fear of public speaking. For others, it was the learning. But for us organizers, it was a different thing altogether.

Not only is the YWCA Cup an opportunity for the team to come together and see each other after so long apart. It is also an opportunity to showcase our skills in public speaking and debate and share the love we have with anybody who would listen. But above it all, it is an opportunity to be reminded why we do what we do in the first place. We debate so we can understand others better. We debate because we want to learn more about the world. We debate because we want to change today so we can have a better tomorrow. And we debate because we want others to share this responsibility as well.

There is a poem we often refer to when the going gets tough in debate, which we also shared with the kids in the YWCA Cup. It talks about why we choose to debate, and why, after all these years, we keep at it, despite heartbreak, despite loss, despite challenge. Here it is:

Why Choose Debate?

By Tiny Talaue

It doesn’t get any better than this.

Constantly, you will face the stark reality

that the universe has its own rules

and that it conspires to either make things clear or complex for you.

You will realize that what you know is insignificant 

in a myriad of knowledge.

Ceaselessly, you will ask questions with ever elusive answers.

You will learn of truths that could overwhelm you with their powerful real-ness.

But you will also learn that herein lies the purpose of it all.

To always have that fire in your guts

to speak out what could be of little significance to others.

To make sense of seemingly nonsensical things.

To know that the walk down the road is what makes it worthwhile.

To realize that you need to believe in that incomprehensible one.

To embrace life in its complexity.

And to share these moments with spirited individuals,

bearers of victory and defeat.

So why choose debate?

Simple.

It’s a life not lived in mediocrity.

It’s a life less ordinary.