When many people consider speech and debate, they imagine two people sitting in a room arguing about a given topic, and although there are several forms of debate similar to this, speech and debate is actually quite broad. It is first divided into two separate events, speech, and debate. Although these two do interact, they usually train and compete separately. With debate being in a completely different school than speech during tournaments. Beyond this, there are many smaller subdivisions such as memorized speech (including informative, memorized public address, and original oratory). Interpretation, (including dramatic interpretation, and humorous interpretation). With the debate side containing events like public forum, and policy debate. In between these two major categories there is a small event known as legislative debate.
Legislative debate is quite possibly one of the strangest events, with no school being able to decide whether it should be speech, or debate. It is also unique to Montana, having broken off of the nationally recognized congressional debate fairly recently. Most of the confusion is due to the strange format in which it takes place. Since it is modeled off of Congress, it involves writing legislative bills on a topic, giving memorized authorship speeches, then giving on the spot speeches in support or negation of the bills. It involves voting, proper procedure, and a cross examination period.
“Legislative debate is really a participation event,” joked Hellgate legislative debate coach Hanah Muzkiewics, referring to the fact that since many of the judges have never seen legislative before, usually the one who speaks the most gets a higher score. Though legislative debate also requires a plethora of skills, ranging from diplomacy, to good speaking skills, to knowledge of current events, and logic based reasoning. It is undoubtedly a good way to grow the brain in ways beneficial in careers such as politics, foreign relations, and law.
Despite these factors, legislative debate is far from popular, with enrollment usually fluctuating between two and three participants. While several schools have only one competent student, more don’t even offer it, meaning that this debate with its congressional debate roots stretching back to the nineteen thirties, might be going out of fashion.
