Schools across the country are influencing their students in major ways. Beginning with their public speaking skills. They’re doing this through the debate teams in their schools. Debate teams are communication building teams, that allow people to argue their opinions and factual research, while following certain guidelines. These teams have little to no requirements to join, and they allow students to express themselves through communication. Students involved in debate teams learn social skills, public speaking skills, critical thinking, and research skills. These skills they’re learning can help improve their chances during job or college interviews. They also help create logical arguments and conversations, and they allow students to see more than one side to a specific topic. Debate teams have slowly made a rise in popularity for the excellent lessons they can teach students. Not to mention the initiative and leadership skills that students gain. The leadership and communication skills that students learn during these debates, can open amazing opportunities for their future. So, to get to the real question here, should Lincoln High School have a debate team? Bringing a debate team to Lincoln could improve the success rate among students. The reason for this, is that the students will learn multiple skills to help them in their everyday life. Along with their school work. The communication skills will help them gain confidence to speak up about things they don’t understand or would like to discuss more. Plus, the critical thinking and research skills will help them build more knowledge on many topics. With these skills, success rates at Lincoln will rapidly improve. Although, there is one downside. Debates, even though they have guidelines, can become extremely heated and controversial. Even though some will testify that these heated arguments are healthy and allow students to improve; others will argue that the debates can lead to other things, such as more violence in the arguments. Debate Teams are a great way to help improve the education system, and all schools should try to form a team if possible! Many students would enjoy being apart of the team, and it would benefit them greatly. So, I think it would be great for Lincoln to consider having one