Gerald Riberio (far left) coaches two members of the Cowan Avenue Elementary School debate team. (Photo by Olu Alemoru)
Story Created:
May 29, 2009 at 2:27 PM PST
Story Updated:
Jun 3, 2009 at 1:44 AM PST
WESTCHESTER — A group of fifth graders here will make history next month becoming the first 10 year olds in the Los Angeles Unified School District to have their own debate team.
The Cowan Avenue Elementary School Debate Team, sponsored by its umbrella higher learning partner Loyola Marymount University of Schools, will host its first in-house public debate June 5 in the school’s auditorium.
The topic at hand will be: “Should children be given an allowance for doing household chores?”
A number of high profile guests have been invited to attend the event, including Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, county Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, broadcaster Tavis Smiley, L.A. City Council members Bernard Parks and Herb Wesson and several LAUSD board members.
The lineup of the 14 young debaters are: Znala Williams, Justine Leone, Jerrett Keller, Fredrick Christian Kelley, Isis Golden, Alex Keaton, Sydney Cotton, Donoven Bryant, Khalia Taylor, Max Roussel, Teyah Quinn Harper, Jeremy Watkins, Chloe Cook and McKenna Stevens.
A panel of judges will rate their performance in several categories on a scale of one to 10 and award a final mark out of 100.
The debate team is the brainchild of Gerald Riberio, president of Cowan Avenue Neighbor Inc., a parents’ organization at the school. According to Riberio, invitations were sent out to parents last December and an initial 46 kids tried out for the team by delivering two-minute presentations, later whittled down to 16. “The Great Debaters,” a movie that starred Denzel Washington as the coach of a successful Black college debate team, was screened for the first practice.
Acting as debate coaches, two parents — criminal defense attorney Amanda Touchton and Charles Drew University research Prof. Didra Brown Taylor — helped prepare the team for the event.
“This will be an historic event because it’s the first time that a school, amongst the 570 in the LAUSD system, has had an elementary [school] debate team,” said Taylor during a recent rehearsal observed by The Wave. “We’ve seen an enormous turnaround in some of the kids. One young lady couldn’t speak without crying. She really had stage fright, but we knew in her heart that she had the desire to stand in front of people and present herself.”
Riberio, who recalled her father insisting she join a debate team as a youngster, believes communication is the key to success in today’s global environment. Her only lament was that she could not find another elementary school within the system to debate with.
“I believe that debate is a vital tool for all children that teaches them to be confident and not afraid to speak in public,” she said. “They’re motivated and I think they will do an excellent job on the night.”
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