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ALOUD Highlights National Better Conversation Week
"When you don't have education, you've got to use your brains." Anonymous
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 23, 2005
Contact: Will Baker 212-702-0944
www.debateleaders.org
ALOUD Highlights National Better Conversation Week
“With Thanksgiving just over the horizon, how many of us are dreading the discussions with Uncle Jose or Aunt Sarah at the family dinner table?” remarked Will Baker, Executive Director of the Associated Leaders of Urban Debate (ALOUD), “There is no better time of the year for everyone to practice the art of civic discourse than over the holidays during National Better Conversation Week.” National Better Conversation Week began in Seattle in 2001 as a mid-winter festival of conversation called Conversation Week with a gala celebrity launch event and at least two cafés per day. From 24 cafés during Conversation Week, the concept has expanded in North America to 70 individual and unique cafés. Since Conversation Week, the cafés are serving primarily as places where people of diverse views can reflect philosophically, politically and personally with others on the times we are living through.
Conversation Week activities are a wonderful compliment to ALOUD’s National Campaign for Civic Discourse. Launched last month at the National Press Club, the campaign seeks to raise awareness and understanding about civic discourse through student involvement in schools and urban communities and sharing local success stories of debate’s transformative power. Partners in 18 cities from Seattle to Miami have already joined the campaign. ALOUD Board Chair and NYU President John Sexton warns that “We have lost the ability in our public discourse to speak to one another in a way that moves ideas forward—that can result in enlightenment—or at least reflection—and that ends in disagreement without rancor…Informed discussion of issues of importance is a basic premise of democracy…”
The mission of ALOUD is to foster educational partnerships for urban students through training in academic debate. ALOUD promotes debate as a vehicle for urban education reform to develop civic participation and healthier communities. “All this month and next month, our partners will host public debates and tournaments to help at-risk students learn about civic discourse through debate.” Baker continued, “What makes me truly thankful this season is seeing a young person from an underprivileged community develop the confidence to express herself and possess the research skills to defend her opinions. I’m thankful for the help we provide today and for the great things those young people will do for the nation tomorrow.”
# # # #This is our message to America’s urban students:
Your Voice. Your Future. Debate.