If you think your child’s first debate experience was watching one on T.V., my guess is, you’re probably wrong.

The year that I finally got a cabbage patch doll and decided permed hair was absolutely gor-ge-ous (until I saw it on my own head) was the year my small town public school taught me about the importance of a woman’s right to chose.

In a class of twenty-eight, there were only three of us who previously knew what abortion was. After the lesson, my teacher revealed her plan to review the pro-choice information she had provided us with by holding a debate.

There was a sign-up sheet at the front of the room where we declared the “platform” we would defend. (Exciting stuff for our fledging minds.) Sign-up for the team on the left was a quick affair. Only two boys and a girl (me) were willing to write our names under the “Anti-Abortion” side.

My teacher, likely in her late twenties, had prepared the pro-choice speaking points in advance and was quick to share them with the large group of “the cool kids” piled together on the right side of the room. The group of twenty-five and their adult mentor, faced off with three kids who had never before experienced or even considered public speaking.

Across our makeshift, elementary school classroom, debate stage of shortened desks, looking out across the rows of my peers sitting in little people chairs, I stumbed through my words. I had no real argument. I could only really manage something along the lines of “I don’t know how to say it the right way, but abortion is killing a baby. It’s wrong. We don’t know what that baby might have done in the world.” (That last bit I remember coming out quite discombobulated, incoherent and haywired.)

I don’t remember what my two fellow pro-life peers said. They were probably as embarrassed by the whole thing as I was. I think they just said, “It’s wrong.” However, I was so flustered they could have said something amazing and I didn’t hear it.

A few, impossibly long, painful minutes later, the class voted about who won the debate. Which side had a well thought-out argument, and clearly stated their thoughts? It was no surprise that the kids regurgitating pro-choice dogma had a victorious tower of little white papers with hastily written “Pro-Choice”s in youthful scrawls and loops.

In a time when our culture is so very focused on debates and consummed with indignation that two grandfathers would argue in a less than perfectly dignified manner (because like wow grown-ups totally never disagree), perhaps we ought to instead be thinking about what the shorter members of society are experiencing.

In my first debate, I learned how important it is to really know what you are talking about. I learned how important it is to have the information stored in my head well enough that I can access it when blushing and trembling with anxiety.

I also learned what it feels like as a kid, to be bullied by ‘the sweetest, cutest elementary school teacher in town.’

I learned that 25 out of 28 people are probably happy to just be told what to think, especially if it means they are on the winning side.

What was your child’s first debate about or what will it be about? When was it or when will it be? Turns out 3rd grade is a pretty typical time to introduce debates, as there are many 3rd grade debate lesson plans and actual videos of 3rd grade debates online.

Do you think your child is going to tell you about it? I certainly didn’t speak with my parents.

What lessons will your kids learn? Chances are they are going to learn that standing up for what’s right is unpopular.

Do you think your child won’t get to enjoy a similar experience because your child’s teacher would never do that? Here are a few topics that I know elementary students in my rural North Dakota area have encountered:

1) That Stalin, Che Guavera, or Macolm X are role models and “Heros of History.”

2) That you can be a girl and have a penis.

3) That humans come from apes, not God.

If these ideas seem like something that wouldn’t get discussed in classroom of such young children, I can assure you, these topics are now thought to be quite tame and not, in any way, out of bounds for elementary school discussion.

87% of K-12 teachers identify as democrats (1) and only 37% are self-proclaimed Christians. (2) Whereas adults in general in America are 70.6% Christian and 31% are democrats. (3) Your ethical, moral guidelines are, most likely, nothing like your child’s teacher’s guidelines.

Even if your child’s 3rd grade teacher isn’t leading a formal debate, these lessons are still happening. Teachers are still reprimanding children for disagreeing with their beliefs (quite frequently actually). Will your child be prepared to stand up for what they believe in? What consequences will they face? Do they know that they risk standing alone and/or having their humiliation immortalized on Youtube, Instagram or Tiktok or losing their first debate? Unfortunately, they probably do.

Is it good for our children, our culture or our nation that the majority of students are encouraged to do nothing in the face of adversity?

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Edmund Burke

(1) https://www.pacificresearch.org/why-are-teachers-mostly-liberal/

(2) https://www.christianheadlines.com/contributors/michael-foust/37-percent-of-public-school-teachers-are-evangelical-christians-poll-finds.html

(3) wikipedia