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As a high school student at Black River Academy and a college student at Amherst College, Calvin Coolidge studied rhetoric and participated in debate–and excelled in both. He later said that the experience helped prepare him for his career in law and politics, and instilled in him the importance of civil discourse, public policy, and service.
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“Since the dawn of civilization, the triumphs of the tongue have rivaled, if not surpassed, those of the sword.” |
To advance these values he championed, the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation works to provide high-quality speech and debate experiences for middle and high school students nationwide. America remains starved of rigorous and respectful debate. Teaching the next generation to engage in constructive disagreement and practical, real-world persuasion is the essential remedy for many issues plaguing our country’s education and political systems. We advocate for a traditional, logical, and evidence-based methodology. In our debate rounds, volunteer citizen judges use the power of their ballots to exercise the ultimate check on undesirable practices all too common in high school debate today.
Our premier tournaments each year are the Presidents’ Cup and the Coolidge Cup; together they offer more than $40,000 in scholarship prizes. A national tournament that attracts top students in speech and debate from across the country to President Coolidge’s historic hometown of Plymouth, Vermont, the Coolidge Cup is the culminating event of our national tournament series. The tournament takes place each year during the week of the Fourth of July, and the Coolidge Foundation assists with travel expenses and covers all hotel and meal expenses for students.
The Coolidge Foundation also seeks to build and grow regional debate leagues around the country. One league that we operate is the Coolidge Debate League at the Luddy Schools, located primarily in North Carolina. If you would like to bring Coolidge debate to your region, please reach out to us. We are pleased to share our tournament resources with leagues who are looking to hold Coolidge debates.
For questions or inquiries about the Coolidge Foundation’s debate programs, contact Jonathan Peele , Director of Speech and Debate, or Joe Webb, Program Manager for Speech and Debate.