engage your Grade 2-12 gifted child online with debate
critical thinking creativity collaboration
U.S. COACHING FOR GIFTED CHILDREN:
Learn directly from our Founder – two time U.S. State Debate Champion and Stanford University alumnus, Rajiv Kacholia. Read about our Founder's background and why he has brought this exciting social impact initiative for high achieving students in India, by clicking here.
Join gifted students already participating in Speech and Debate India's high energy, live online classes, practices, and small group competitive team debates! We leverage technology to deliver an exciting, personal experience. We limit debates to small groups and every child has a speaking role within debates to express their evidenced-based views. We have limited seats and this is a competitive activity - please review the FAQs below and sign-up to engage your child socially and intellectually.
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Select up to 5 intensive two week Summer Course program tracks. Each track is Rs. 14,900+GST and includes 20 hours of live sessions over two weeks. Sign-up per your child's convenience and interests.
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Grades 4-12, Summer Course Program Tracks & Debate Topics:
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Healthcare & Disease [SOLD OUT]
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​April 6th - April 17th​
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Global Leadership [SOLD OUT]
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​April 20th - May 1st​
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Reimagining Our World [NEW]
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​May 11th - May 22nd​
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Environment & Climate Change [LIMITED SEATS]
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​June 15th - June 26th
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Business & Entrepreneurship
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​June 29th - July 10th
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Technology & Artificial Intelligence
- ​July 13th - July 24th​
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Custom - Select 10 Sessions
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​​Example: Mondays or Tues/Wed or 1 week across multiple tracks. Inquire here.
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Grades 4-12, Divisions and Times:​
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Elementary School (ES) - grades 4-5, Monday - Friday, daily, 4-6pm
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Middle School (MS) - grades 6-8, Monday - Friday, daily, 6-8pm
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High School (HS) - grades 9-12, Monday - Friday, daily, 6-8pm
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Grades 2-4, Young Explorers Course [LIMITED SEATS]
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​Maggi versus Macaroni, Peanut Butter versus Jelly, and other debates in Food, Space Exploration, Sports, and Technology
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​May 6th - June 2nd
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Watch a 3 minute video clip further below on this page
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Daily Monday - Friday, 20 sessions of 1 hour each, 2:45pm - 3:45pm
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Limited seats, Signup to reserve space for this special program. Seats will be allocated on a first come basis upon payment receipt - priced at Rs. 14,900 + GST
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Grades 2-4, Divisions and Times:​
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Young Explorers (YE) - grades 2-4, Monday - Friday, daily 2:45-3:45pm (see details further below, under "Customized Courses")
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Our Unique Approach - This is not an elocution class, and we don't write or memorize essays. Debate is fun, competitive, and we help advanced kids expand how they think critically about topics beyond their grade level. Students gradually gain confidence to speak out, starting with smaller groups where they collaborate with teammates. Students research evidence and data under time pressure, and we look for structured position outlines to be prepared faster, enhancing writing speed, information processing, and decision making. Review our Benefits section for academic research on why there is no academic activity that can train young minds in the four C's as well as long-term participation in Debate. See FAQs at the bottom of this page for more details.
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Demo Courses - Apply Here to be waitlisted for 5, one hour demo sessions in May at Rs. 5,000 + GST.
Sample Video: Watch a video clip of some of our older students from a recent debate on postponing the Olympics due to Coronavirus:​
Sample Video: Watch a video clip of some of our Young Explorer students debating fun topics like Amusement Parks, Homework, and Superheroes! See how they react when Mr. Kacholia teases them about not picking a winner...
PARENT REFERENCES:
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"We are really thankful to you and your team members for engaging children in this tough time. My child is really enjoying your session." - Parent, Ahemdabad.
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"The session was quite interactive. My child liked it." - Parent, Gurgaon.
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"Just pass on my message to Mr. Kacholia... It was really wonderful interaction. I was hearing the way he was analysing every aspect related to the child. Very impressive. It will also help the kids to analyse themselves." - Parent, Gurgaon.
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"Thanks for organising this. Kudos to you and team." - Parent, Mumbai.
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"Thank you so much! They're so excited about this class, and we couldn't have asked for a better teacher." - Parent, Mumbai.
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"This is so interesting. What an awesome idea to make a solid contribution. Such a great thing for a child!" - Parent, Mumbai
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CUSTOMIZED COURSES:
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Young Explorers (Grades 2-4) Special Course - MAY 6th - JUNE 2nd​
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Maggi versus Macaroni and more fun debates!
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​May 6th - June 2nd, daily, Monday - Friday, 2:45pm to 3:45pm
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20, one hour daily sessions course for Rs. 14,900 + GST
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A special 4 week live Zoom online course for one hour per weekday starting Wednesday, May 6th to Tuesday June 2nd that introduces newly enrolling younger students to debate using our unique approach.
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Debate topics are fun and relatable to help students become comfortable with our format. Students in this special introductory program will discuss and debate these topics: Food, Space Exploration, Sports, and Technology.
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This course is designed to help younger kids comfortable and started through shorter one-hour sessions with instruction, time to collaborate with teams, and engage in debate games in a smaller group setting live online.
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Select the "Young Explorers May 6 - June 2" option on the sign-up form - Register here.
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SAT Test Prep, 1 on 1 custom 10 session course to raise your SAT English and Math scores. This private course is taught by a perfect scorer in SAT Math and near-perfect scorer in SAT English. Includes evaluation of a full diagnostic test plus customized plan for 10 hours of private, 1 on 1 Zoom instruction and practice test homework assignments for Rs. 30,000 + GST. Score at your peak potential. Inquire here.
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SAT Approach? We help students understand how the College Board structures and formulates problems. Every question on the SAT has one and only one correct answer. There are no "trick questions". We work personally with each student and customize learning to help shift how they approach the test and think like the SAT examination preparers. We also work to bridge gaps in areas that we identify after students take a diagnostic full SAT test. Before the first one hour of sessions begin, we build a custom plan for your success! We will never use your session time to administer SAT Tests. Instead, our approach is to use each hour of personal session time productively reviewing questions, answers, skill gaps and strategies and assigning homework to target growth in each subsequent class. Classes may be scheduled once or twice a week.
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Speech and Debate Personal Consultations - 1 on 1 customized sessions over Zoom. Inquire on WhatsApp.
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BENEFITS & RESEARCH STUDIES
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SUCCESS IN MIDDLE / HIGH SCHOOL AND COLLEGE
Improves vocabulary, reading comprehension level, reading speed, writing speed and level, speaking, attentiveness, critical thinking, creativity, and note-taking skills, essential across subjects. There is no academic activity that stimulates a child's development across so many core academic and life skills. A good one page summary of academic research studies on the benefits of speech and debate is available here. A more detailed meta study on benefits is available here. And a paper on the benefits of starting early in Middle School is here.
Dr. Joseph Bellon, in the paper, "A Research Based Justification for Debate Across the Curriculum" further reviews four decades of research and proposes debate be incorporated across subjects, summarizing: "The existing academic literature makes a powerful case for debate across the curriculum. Debate training improves communication competence and critical thinking, and the existing research in educational psychology gives us every reason to expect that these benefits will only increase as debate pedagogy is implemented across the curriculum... Debate gives students an opportunity to develop skills they will need in the real world – an opportunity that contributes to their academic success while simultaneously improving their social skills." The full research paper is available here.
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SUCCESS IN COLLEGE
admissions
Professor Minh Luong of Yale University cites the unique benefits of speech and debate on Selective College Admissions. Debate vastly improves thinking, processing, expression, organizational, and communication skills sought by colleges. Speech and debate can also improve performance in college interviews and the application writing process, to become a stronger persuasive advocate of the student's accomplishments, passions and goals. Professor Luong's paper is available here.
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RAISE SAT/ACT TEST SCORES NATURALLY
Debate can help naturally raise standardized test scores for students. Debate provides the ultimate fun way to boost intrinsic motivation and performance on tests like the SAT and ACT. In 2016, the SAT Test was reconfigured by the College Board which administers the test. The President of the College Board, David Coleman, is a former championship debater who was also a driving force behind the new Common Core Standards in the United States education system, which in turn have been incorporated across many parts of the world, including India's new draft proposed educational overhaul which is available here and cites the importance of many of the same skills that the new SAT and Common Core seek – skills which students naturally learn by engaging in speech and debate.
Learn more about how the newly designed SAT was meant to reduce the value of traditional test prep, and how it is now ideally suited towards the skills focused on in speech and debate, particularly evidence-based analysis and empirical research which the English portion of the test has been adapted towards away from previous memorization of vocabulary; and similar changes to weighting greater emphasis on data analysis and interpretation in the Math portion of the test. Stefan Bauschard, the former Harvard Debate Coach, has written an article titled "Debate Participation as the Ultimate SAT Prep", further explaining the link between the new SAT and how speech and debate provides strong natural preparation here.
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DEVELOP THE TOP LIFE SKILLS EMPLOYERS SEEK
An Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU) survey found 93% of Employers wanted a stronger focus on written and verbal communication skills, critical thinking, and demonstrated problem solving ability. Speech & Debate help master these skills in a fun and engaging way that's designed for students as they progress through Middle and High School. The survey finds 93% of Employers viewed "a candidates' demonstrated capacity to think critically, communicate clearly, & solve complex problems in more important than their undergraduate major." The full survey report is available here and additional employer surveys and economic trend research from the AACU can be found here.
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PREPARE FOR THE upcoming HOLISTIC INDIAN CURRICULUM
In the summer of 2019, the Indian Government released a draft policy proposing a generational overhaul of India's education system to move away from traditional rote memorization and towards a holistic, skills-based learning approach. Students with exposure to Speech and Debate will gain skills relevant to prepare them for success under the proposed policy. Here are selected pertinent excerpts that reflect the Government moving Indian education in a direction where children could be significant aided by Speech and Debate:
"Holistic development of learners: The key overall thrust of curriculum and pedagogy reform across all stages will be to move the education system towards real understanding and learning how to learn – and away from the culture of rote learning present today. The goal will be to create holistic and complete individuals equipped with key 21st century skills. All aspects of curriculum and pedagogy will be reoriented and revamped in order to attain these critical goals.
Reorientation of the content and process of school education: The entire school education curriculum will be reoriented to develop holistic learners and develop in learners higher order skills of critical thinking, creativity, logical deduction, collaboration/teamwork, social responsibility, multilingualism, quantitative reasoning, and digital literacy.
Oral and written communication skills: Both verbal and written communication have become increasingly important in the modern world. People spend much of their daily lives communicating messages, requests, questions, opinions, feedback, anecdotes, and more – both in person and in written or digital form. Numerous surveys of employers around the world reveal that verbal communication skills are ranked first among potential job candidate’s “must-have” skills and qualities. The ability to speak, listen, question, discuss, and write with clarity and conciseness – and with confidence, eloquence, friendliness, and open-mindedness – is considered a truly essential skill for all managers and leaders. The Policy therefore recognises the importance of schooling systems developing excellent communicators...
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Incorporation of communication in every subject in the Middle and Secondary years: In the Middle and Secondary stages, communication in front of one’s peers will continue, with the aim to discuss more sophisticated and course-specific topics."
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The full draft policy can be downloaded here.