As she begins grade 9 and high school, my daughter, Elena, has been sampling a variety of extracurricular activities, including debate club. At dinner on Monday, she described her first meeting (which sounded pretty social); and my son, Adam, a fifth grader, took her enthusiasm as his cue to be irksome and start bragging about how he was the better debater. But the mood was light, so with their respective permission, I decided to hold the first Messinger-Messinger public debate. The Proposition: Public School is Better than Private School. Adam argued for it; Elena, against.
Adam: Okay, so public school is free!
Me: Anything else?
Adam: Hmm….it has a longer school year so you learn more.
Me (genuinely surprised): Not bad. Two good points.
In fairness to Elena, the situation was kind of stacked against her. If she wins, that’s expected, because she’s older and a very good student. Plus, Adam typically revels in being silly, so if he loses it’s par for the course.
Elena: Given that I go to public school, this is a bit a counter-intuitive. Hmmmm. Why is private school better? Ummm. Because you don’t have to worry about what to wear [because of the uniforms].
Me: Anything else?
Elena: Hmmm. I hear they have good lunches?
Me: That’s it?
Elena: For now (laughs).
Ok, so maybe this wasn’t the most vigorous or discerning debate that could have been had on this topic. But a good time was had by all, and to everyone’s amusement, I declared Adam the winner (the ideas of cost-less and learn-more trumping clothes and lunch). I suggested to Elena that her answers maybe had more to do with her own preoccupations than anything else—and that debate club might actually be very useful! Hopefully, she’ll enjoy it.
Eric Messinger is the editor of New York Family. He can be reached at emessinger@manhattanmedia.com.
