World Schools Debate — University of Kentucky (Sept 11-13)

This page holds everything we need for the World Schools Debate tournament: the two prepared motions, how to get ready, and how to sign up (or ask for help). Six preliminary rounds are debated and only three of them are prepared. We debate the GDP topic twice; once on each side.

The MotionsLearning Resources (GDP)Learning Resources (Climate)How We PrepareSign Up
(or ask a question)

Quick Facts

When

September 11 to 13, 2026

Three days. We keep the whole weekend free, because the elimination rounds run late.

Where

Online

Hosted by the Univ. of Kentucky. We need a quiet location, reliable internet, and test our equipment.

Format

World Schools

Three speakers a side, eight minutes each, then a reply speech of four minutes.

Rounds

Six preliminary rounds

Three of the six preliminary rounds are prepared motions. The rest are impromptu motions.

Sides

Proposition and Opposition

The sides switch between Rounds One and Two, so both cases on the GDP motion have to be ready.

Cost and Entry

Confirmed by Coach Bill

The entry fee and the sign-up deadline are added here as soon as the tournament publishes them.

Rounds One and Two banner

Rounds One and Two — Prepared

This House regrets the use of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as the primary metric of a nation’s success.

Gross Domestic Product adds up everything a country produces in a year, and governments have used that one number to say whether a country is doing well. This motion asks whether leaning on it that heavily is undesirable. We prepare both sides, because the sides switch between these two rounds and we will argue whichever one we are given.

REPORTS — THE BACKGROUND
Report: The BackgroundImage: The Background
REPORTS — BOTH SIDES
Report: Both SidesImage: Both SidesImage: PropositionImage: Opposition
Round Five banner

Round Five — Prepared

This House welcomes climate pessimism.

Information slide, and it is binding: climate pessimism is the viewpoint that catastrophic global heating and severe ecological breakdown cannot be fully prevented, and that we should make decisions based on this fact.

The information slide decides what this debate is about, so we read it before we write a single argument. The motion does not ask whether the science is bleak. It asks whether taking that outlook as the basis for our decisions is desirable, which is a different question and the one the judge is listening for.

REPORTS — THE BACKGROUND
Report: The BackgroundImage: The Background
REPORTS — BOTH SIDES
Report: Both SidesImage: Both SidesImage: PropositionImage: Opposition
Learning Resources — GDP5 reports, 5 infographics and 6 videos

Everything we need to argue this motion on either side. We work from the top down, because each item assumes the one before it. Every fact was checked against the original publication, and the last item names every source for a judge who asks.

Reports

Read first Background Explained What GDP is, who built it, and why a country gets judged by one number. We read this one first. Read second Both Sides Explained The ten arguments in short form, five a side, so we can see the shape of the debate quickly. Read third Full Argument, Both Sides Every argument in full, with the answer the other side gives and the way we answer it back. Use in the round Evidence Packet Eighty-three cards we read aloud, five for every argument, each quotation copied word for word. For the judge Where Our Facts Come From Every source with author, publication and date, plus the sentence each fact rests on. Ask a coach Any questions? Send it to Dr. Hack and Prof. Kehoe, and one of them will answer.

Images

One page The Background What the number is, what it decides, and the two questions a judge is listening for. One page Both Sides The whole debate on one sheet, four points a side, each with its publication and date. One page The Proposition Case Six arguments in order, each with its source and the reply the Opposition will give. One page The Opposition Case Six arguments in order, each with its source and the reply the Proposition will give. Copy and paste All Four as a PDF The same four sheets as a PDF, with text we can select and paste into our own notes. Ask a coach Any questions? Send it to Dr. Hack and Prof. Kehoe, and one of them will answer.

Videos

Background · 5 minGDP: What It CountsWhat GDP adds up, and what it leaves out. This helps us define GDP cleanly in the first thirty seconds of a speech, and answer the judge who asks what the number really measures.
Background · 8 minGDP: Where It Came FromHow GDP was built in the 1930s to measure the damage of the Great Depression. This helps us argue that GDP was designed for a different problem, which is the strongest way the Proposition can open.
Both sides · 9 minGDP: The Whole DebateAll ten GDP arguments in order, five for each side. This helps us prepare both cases at once, which we have to do because the sides switch between Rounds One and Two.
Both sides · 8 minGDP: The Debate, WeighedThe same ten arguments as the video above, told in a different order and ending by weighing which side carries the larger harm. Hearing the two sides weighed against each other is what teaches us to write a reply speech.
Proposition · 8 minGDP: Why It Causes HarmThe full Proposition case against GDP: health, unpaid work, islands refused help after a storm, and nature. This helps us answer the Opposition’s best reply, which is that GDP and wellbeing move together almost perfectly.
Opposition · 6 minGDP: Why It Still WorksThe full Opposition case for keeping GDP: it works today, growth pays for hospitals, and the replacements give incorrect and undesirable results. This helps us answer the Proposition’s strongest point, that GDP counts a wildfire as growth.
A note on how to use these. We never read a quotation from a summary. We read it from the card, because the card holds the sentence exactly as the source wrote it, and a judge who checks will find that we were accurate.
Learning Resources — Climate Pessimism5 reports, 5 infographics and 6 videos

Round Five, and the information slide is binding, so we read it before we write a single argument. Every fact below was checked against the original publication, and the last report names every source for a judge who asks.

Reports

Read first Background Explained What climate pessimism means, what the slide binds us to, and why the motion is not about the science. Read second Both Sides Explained The ten arguments in short form, five a side, so we can see the shape of the debate quickly. Read third Full Argument, Both Sides Every argument in full, with the answer the other side gives and the way we answer it back. Use in the round Evidence Packet Seventy-one cards we read aloud, five for every argument, each quotation copied word for word. For the judge Where Our Facts Come From All sixty-one sources with author, publication and date, plus the limit each source places on itself. Ask a coach Any questions? Send it to Dr. Hack and Prof. Kehoe, and one of them will answer.

Images

One page The Background What the motion asks, what each side must prove, and the trap that decides most of these rounds. One page Both Sides The whole debate on one sheet, four points a side, each with its publication and date. One page The Proposition Case Five arguments in order, each with its source and the reply the Opposition will give. One page The Opposition Case Five arguments in order, each with its source and the reply the Proposition will give. Copy and paste All Four as a PDF The same four sheets as a PDF, with text we can select and paste into our own notes. Ask a coach Any questions? Send it to Dr. Hack and Prof. Kehoe, and one of them will answer.

Videos

Background · 4 minClimate: What the Motion AsksThe shortest way in. What climate pessimism means, and why the information slide decides the debate.
Background · 7 minClimate: The Ground in FullThe same ground with the history added, and the difference between accepting some harm and giving up.
Both sides · 9 minClimate: The Whole DebateAll ten arguments in order, five for each side. If we watch only one both-sides video, we watch this one.
Both sides · 9 minClimate: The Debate, WeighedThe same ten arguments told a second way, ending by weighing which side carries the larger harm.
Proposition · 6 minClimate: Why We Welcome ItThe full Proposition case, built end to end, and how we answer the charge that we are giving up.
Opposition · 6 minClimate: Why We Refuse ItThe full Opposition case, and why despair has overtaken doubt as the reason people stop acting.
The information slide is binding. We read it aloud in practice until nobody has to look it up, because a team that argues about the science instead of the decision has already lost the round.

How We Prepare

Two of the eleven rounds are research rounds, which means these are the only rounds we can walk into already knowing what will be said. That is the whole opportunity, and it is wasted unless we use the material on this page before we arrive. Everything below is about those two rounds.

1
Learn the material firstWe read the background, we watch one video, and we finish the ten arguments before we write a single line of our own. A speaker who is still learning the topic in the round has nothing left over for thinking.
2
Know our role before our caseThe first speaker builds, the second rebuilds and attacks, the third attacks only, and the reply speech tells the story of the whole debate. What we prepare depends entirely on which of those four jobs is ours.
3
Build both sides, not oneThe sides switch between Rounds One and Two, so a case that only works for one side is half a case. We write Proposition and Opposition together, and each one comes out stronger for having met the other.
4
Choose our backup evidenceOnce we know our role, we pick the two or three cards we will actually carry, and we know them well enough to use them without reading. Backup evidence we cannot find quickly is evidence we do not have.
5
Say the evidence emphaticallyWe practise reading each card out loud until it lands. The same sentence delivered flatly and delivered with weight are not the same argument to a judge, and this is the part almost every team skips.
6
Practise points of information both waysWe practise offering them briefly and answering them without losing our place. A team that offers none looks uninterested, and a team that accepts none looks afraid.
7
Anticipate the rebuttal, then rehearse the answerFor every argument we build, we write the strongest reply the other side could give, and we practise answering it out loud. Being surprised in the round is a preparation failure rather than bad luck.
“Preparation and Practice Prevents Poor Performance.”-- Dr. Rybold’s Five P’s of success in debate.
A rule that matters more than any of the steps above. Our cases are our own work. We research honestly, we write our own arguments, and every piece of evidence we use comes from a source we have actually read. A card we cannot explain is a card we did not earn.

How We Sign Up

If you would like to compete, let your coaching staff know you are interested.

Contact Dr. HackContact Prof. Kehoe

By filling out the following form, each of the coaches will be notified, and someone will get back to you with an answer as quickly as possible.


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