Students from inner cities find power at the podium

"When I first started to speak my words correctly, my friends were laughing at me and I didn't get the respect that I had before.... I would try to introduce them little by little into things like literature, speaking of 'Romeo and Juliet' or other things that Ms. Sakwa taught me, and by that, they have also learned literature.... And they really do respect me now."

Other students say the team's support has enabled them to face the fears of competing against kids from wealthy schools - fears that have lessened now that they consistently take home trophies.

They can't say enough about their coach - who could be earning a lot more money in the suburbs, but instead has taken great pride in her urban brood.

"If I wasn't with Ms. Sakwa, I really wouldn't be aspiring to go to [Morehouse College]. I think I would want to stay on the streets," Brandon says.

Sakwa says every single member graduates from high school, proving that, "If you give children a voice, if you give them an opportunity, most will rise to the occasion."

Mr. Lindsey was rewarded in part for inspiring similar transformations, but schools don't have to have such heroic coaches to benefit from debate teams, says Les Lynn, executive director of the National Association of Urban Debate Leagues.

These leagues, the ones originally inspired by the New York model, promote public policy debate, which includes research on a given resolution and then rounds of 90-minute debates. Students are thrilled to have that much time to talk without adult interruption, Mr. Lynn says. "It reverses the traditional classroom hierarchy."

To test whether this kind of debate really improves academic achievement, Linda Collier, a debate coach and a professor at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, studied public schools in five cities. Debaters increased their reading scores 25 percent more than did the control group between the fall and spring of the 2002-03 school year. Debaters also showed higher levels of self-esteem and intent to attend college.

The urban debate leagues, now in 16 cities such as Atlanta and Chicago, has also produced an impressive alumni roster. Seventy-five percent of participants go on to college, compared with an average of just 18 percent in their school districts, Lynn says.

Howard University sponsored a debate academy this summer in part to create a sort of "farm team" for itself, says Professor Davis, who has been passionate about debate since his own days on a high school team in Seattle. Back then, he was the only African-American at debate meets, he says, because he was voluntarily bused to a school with a team. He's excited to see debate diversifying. "Not everybody can play football; not everybody wants to be a rapper. There's a lot of students out there who have very high ambitions and need that kind of training," he says.

Fifty students attended the two-week academy, the first at a historically black university. Many received grants and left their own city for the first time. And two of them won $5,000 scholarships to attend Howard. "When we announced the teams who made it into the quarter finals, it was like the NCAA basketball tournament," Davis says. "I've never seen that much enthusiasm from a bunch of 'nerds,' " he says with a laugh.

If forensics were to receive as much support as sports, he says, it would mean nothing short of a better future for America. "As our country starts looking more like the complexion of the world, to have leaders who are trained and smart and can think on their feet and do critical thinking ... [that's] one of the best signs for a democracy."

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