“STUDIES SHOW THAT debate is good for you” is exactly the sort of thing you’d expect someone in an ill-fitting blazer and awkward shoes to say at a high school debate competition. Despite what you might think about libertarian magazine editors, I wasn’t a high school debater. So technically, I don’t have a dog (or a cat) in this fight.
But studies really do show debate is good for you. A 2011 study by the University of Michigan’s Briana Mezuk and her colleagues found that compared with their nondebating peers, participants in the Chicago Debate League were more likely to graduate, were more likely to meet ACT college-readiness benchmarks, and had greater gains in GPA. The study went to great pains to control for
