I have an idea that can reduce crime
reduce recidivism reduce prejudice and
reduce violence it can also teach people
how to better communicate their ideas
hopefully making the world a safer and
better place this idea is that we teach
debate in all prisons jails in schools
giving people the thinking skills they
need to make better choices in life my
name is David and I’m speaking from the
Texas Department of Criminal Justice
Huntsville unit that are known as the
walls and I’m one twelfth of the
original Lea College Huntsville unit
debate team and on October 7th 2017 we
were a part of history on this very
stage you see we were the first ever
Texas prison debate team and when you go
to hashtag prison debate you’re gonna
see that we competed against the Texas
A&M University Speech and Debate team a
nationally ranked Speech and Debate team
in the first ever George beto
Invitational debate and this was the
first organized debate held within the
Texas prison excuse me I almost forgot
we want
you don’t have to feel too sorry for
Texas Am we beat them so badly that when
they left here about a week later they
won the state championship and debate so
they did pretty good and we’re very
happy for now before I continue I want
to address perception you see our
culture instills a belief a perception
that prisoners and jails are filled with
dangerous people and they’re dangerous
places to stay these people are evil and
they can never contribute to society
once they’ve been released
my coach Adam key likes to say
perception is the truth regardless of
what the facts say and he’s right but
perception can change with perspective
and anybody who shares my perspective of
a jail or prison viewed from the inside
be it as a prisoner a staff member or a
volunteer we can all tell you they’re
not the most dangerous places to live as
a matter of fact some prisons are safer
than many neighborhoods today we have
come we have people who care so much
about our safety that they’re willing to
come check on us every 15 minutes to
make sure we’re okay you show me a
neighborhood watch that does that hey
Margaret
just checking be right back but
seriously these perceptions are wrong as
to the perception that they’re filled
with evil people prisons are filled with
normal people like you your friends and
your family the only difference is these
people have made poor choices and we all
make poor choices in life
some poor choices have very minor
consequences you end up with a bad
haircut poorly dressed or worst case
scenario you embarrass your dog all
right
poor dog other poor choices have much
more severe consequences and you end up
in handcuffs or in prison dressed like
this now as to the belief that nobody
who’s ever gone to jail or prison can
ever contribute to society again well I
just want to point out that Johnny Cash
Tim Allen Danny Trejo Fyodor Dostoevsky
Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela were
all incarcerated and they all
contributed to society after they were
released one of my favorite examples is
his odd a song he’s better known as MVP
not only is he a former WWE wrestler
he’s also a former convict he’s also a
great public speaker and you’re gonna
see that when you go to hashtag prison
debate now if anybody out there still
has doubts as to whether or not somebody
who has been to jail or prison can ever
contribute to society after they’ve been
released maybe you’re a prisoner and you
have doubts about yourself after you’re
released maybe you’re watching this
video and you’re thinking that somebody
who’s incarcerated doesn’t have anything
worth listening to let me just remind
all of you that Joseph Peter Paul and
Jesus Christ we’re all incarcerated so
there’s always potential now I hope that
my perspective has changed some
perceptions so I’ll go ahead and
continue the Texas House of
Representatives House Committee on
Corrections states that many offenders
and many of us on the outside lack the
thinking skills that they need for the
future that are needed for the future
excuse me now this is true you notice
they say many of us because people lack
thinking skills inside and outside of
prison if more people knew how to think
there would be less people in prison now
I’m gonna need everybody’s help tonight
when I point to this side I want
everybody over here to yell teach is
everybody ready ready teach
excellent now when I point to this side
everybody’s gonna yell debate ready
debate okay look I am one of the few
TEDx presenters who has a literal
captive audience all right
the parole office is closed for the day
so nobody’s going anywhere which means
we got plenty of time to get this right
all right let’s try this one more time
ready teach debate thank you any time I
point to y’all tonight
this is what you’re gonna yell is teach
debate excellent the legislature had a
quote that I really liked it says teach
a child the right path and when he is
older he will remain upon it and this is
a brilliant quote but the only problem
is in order to pick the right path you
have to know how to think that’s why
we’re going to excellent we want to
teach debate if we want to help people
improve their thinking skills you see
there are two very important skills
everybody needs in life you need to be
able to be a critical thinker and you
need to have verbal communication skills
and there people are going to argue what
we already teach that in school and
you’re right we do but you have to
remember 36 percent of state prisoners
have less than a high school education
that means these people did not have the
opportunity to learn these skills which
to me seems like a very good reason to
be teaching debate in all prisons and
jails you see research has shown that
people who study debate have improved
critical thinking skills and this isn’t
new research we have studies that go
back to 1949 that show that students
that study debate are better critical
thinkers we have research that shows
debate is the best way to improve
critical thinking if this is the best
method we have to improve critical
thinking why aren’t we teaching it every
school
debate requires you to be a critical
thinker it requires you to think fast as
well see in the debate you start with
five topics each side gets to strike two
of them until you have one resolution to
argue and then you only have 30 minutes
to plan your argument to plan your case
and you can’t use passion and you can’t
use prejudice you have to use logic and
reason when you’re doing this plain and
simple when we teach debate we’re gonna
teach people how to be better thinkers
and we’re going to reduce crime and
recidivism you see recidivism is just a
fancy word for crimes that have already
been that have been committed by people
have been to prison before it’s it’s
nothing it’s still crime and I have yet
to meet anybody who is in prison for
singing too loud in church now I will
tell you I’ve been next to somebody else
singing in church and it might not be a
crime but I’m pretty sure it’s a sin I’m
just gonna tell you not all you but some
of you I just want you to know the Bible
says make a joyful noise you have that
noise part down pat you need to work on
the joyful and this isn’t prejudice
because psalms 100 verse 1
that’s my evidence all right now we’re
going to if we want to reduce prejudice
you see prejudice is an opinion and it
can be favorable or unfavorable
but it’s formed about something and it’s
not based on logic it’s not based on
evidence it’s not reason it’s when
somebody doesn’t take the time or the
consideration to judge fairly as a
matter of fact a prejudiced person is
going to twist distort manipulate even
ignore facts that conflict with their
beliefs when we teach debate people are
going to be less prejudiced
you might not realize this but we allow
prejudice in our lives all the time
prejudice thinking we allow in any time
we take in information a bit from the
internet the radio TV friends family
politicians anytime you accept
information and you take it for granted
being true you don’t look at the
evidence you don’t check the facts
anytime you do this you’re allowing
yourself to be prejudiced but debate is
going to teach you that the only
reasonable time you want to accept
something as being a fact or believe
something is that the evidence requires
you to do so
you see it’s going to teach you to be
more like mr. Spock from Star Trek
you’re going to be logical and for those
of you who don’t like Star Trek it’ll
teach you to be more like mr. data from
next generation we need to teach debate
if we want to reduce violence you see
research has shown that there is a
direct connection between people who
study debate and reduced violence
research also proves that people who
study debate have better skills and are
better equipped to resolve conflict
without violence
you know why does debate have such a
positive effect so well there are many
reasons why but for one it teaches you
how to think and if you know how to
think you’re going to avoid violent
situations to begin with and in addition
to that it teaches you to be a better
communicator which is going to also help
you avoid violence you see when we we
need to teach debate if we want to help
people improve their communications
debate is going to help you improve your
listening your public speaking and your
interview skills see a lot of people
they don’t like to listen they’re not
good at listening we would much rather
hear ourselves talk than have to form a
valid argument or defend our beliefs but
the problem is when we don’t listen to
other people they can cut off
communications altogether which is never
healthy or we can make them angry or
even worse violent you see our beliefs
are a part of who we are our ideas are a
part of who we are your beliefs and your
idea are every bit a part of you as your
arm is a part of you and when somebody
attacks your beliefs it’s just as if
attacking your body your person and what
happens when you’re attacked you want to
defend yourself and you have two choices
to defend yourself verbally or
physically and if you don’t have the
communication skills that you need to
defend yourself verbally you have that
one defense and that’s what can lead to
violence when we teach debate in all
prisons jails and schools people are
learn will learn how to think they will
learn how to make better choices they
will learn how to communicate and this
will also help us reduce violence debate
is going to help you with your public
speaking skills believe it or not more
people fear public speaking more than
they fear death more people are afraid
to come up here and speak than die and
if you’re too afraid to communicate how
will you ever share your ideas how are
you ever going to defend your position
debate is going to help you fight this
fear because it makes you confront your
fear of public speaking I hated public
speaking before I joined the debate team
you can ask mr. key I hated it with a
passion now I’m giving a TEDx talk how
crazy is that
see debate has you arguing topics that
you don’t necessarily agree with and
other topics you don’t know well and
when you can argue topics like these
successfully then you can argue so many
other topics that you are passionate
about the ones that you are
knowledgeable about because you’re going
to have the confidence to do so now
debate is also going to improve your
interview skills believe it or not
interviewing is a part of life we are
always interviewing and not just jobs
this is an interview right now when you
meet somebody for the first time it’s an
interview you’re trying to determine
whether or not you’re going to be
friends and debate is going to help you
with that interview process you see
interviews are very much like a debate
you’re going to have to present your
case you’re going to have to provide
evidence
your claims and you’re going to have to
defend your position and more often than
not you’re gonna have to overcome
prejudices and perceptions in a job
interview how many people have things
they’re gonna have to overcome how many
people have obstacles they have to
overcome all of us maybe you’ve been
fired from a job maybe you don’t have a
job history maybe you’re a felon and
when you study debate you’re gonna learn
how to overcome these obstacles you’re
gonna learn how to win those judges over
because in an interview your interviewer
is your judge and your opponent debate
is going to give you the skills you need
to succeed in this in the audience I
have the rest of the currently College
Huntsville unit debate team we’ve known
each other for a long time now and we’ve
learned a lot about each other and
debate over the years debate it’s safe
to say has allowed all of us to make
better choices in life debate is going
to help us make better decisions it’s
going to help us when we go to the world
many of us are going to use our debate
skills some will use them to find their
to go back to their old jobs and
convince them to rehire them others
might start new careers with their
skills there are a few that might
actually try and win an argument with
their wife but I don’t recommend it
because you can’t win it even when you
win you don’t win just remember two
words yes dear seriously our debate
training is going to help us make better
choices it’s gonna help us in life most
importantly it’s going to help ensure
that we don’t come back to prison
teaching debate in prisons jails and
schools can reduce crime can reduce
recidivism reduce prejudice and reduce
violence and it’s going to teach people
to be better communicators but don’t
take my word for it look at the research
look at my evidence we need to teach
debate in all prisons jails and schools
I’m gonna leave with a challenge I
challenge anyone in a position of
authority to prove me wrong
all you have to do is teach debate in
all prisons jails and schools prove it
doesn’t work prove it does doesn’t do
what I say we need to quit letting
people make mistakes in life and quit
making them learn from mistakes in life
what we need to do is teach them how to
think teach them how to make better
choices and teach them to avoid making
mistakes and we can do this when we
teach debate I’m David and teaching
debate in all prisons jails and schools
is my idea worth sharing thank you
[Applause]
reduce recidivism reduce prejudice and
reduce violence it can also teach people
how to better communicate their ideas
hopefully making the world a safer and
better place this idea is that we teach
debate in all prisons jails in schools
giving people the thinking skills they
need to make better choices in life my
name is David and I’m speaking from the
Texas Department of Criminal Justice
Huntsville unit that are known as the
walls and I’m one twelfth of the
original Lea College Huntsville unit
debate team and on October 7th 2017 we
were a part of history on this very
stage you see we were the first ever
Texas prison debate team and when you go
to hashtag prison debate you’re gonna
see that we competed against the Texas
A&M University Speech and Debate team a
nationally ranked Speech and Debate team
in the first ever George beto
Invitational debate and this was the
first organized debate held within the
Texas prison excuse me I almost forgot
we want
you don’t have to feel too sorry for
Texas Am we beat them so badly that when
they left here about a week later they
won the state championship and debate so
they did pretty good and we’re very
happy for now before I continue I want
to address perception you see our
culture instills a belief a perception
that prisoners and jails are filled with
dangerous people and they’re dangerous
places to stay these people are evil and
they can never contribute to society
once they’ve been released
my coach Adam key likes to say
perception is the truth regardless of
what the facts say and he’s right but
perception can change with perspective
and anybody who shares my perspective of
a jail or prison viewed from the inside
be it as a prisoner a staff member or a
volunteer we can all tell you they’re
not the most dangerous places to live as
a matter of fact some prisons are safer
than many neighborhoods today we have
come we have people who care so much
about our safety that they’re willing to
come check on us every 15 minutes to
make sure we’re okay you show me a
neighborhood watch that does that hey
Margaret
just checking be right back but
seriously these perceptions are wrong as
to the perception that they’re filled
with evil people prisons are filled with
normal people like you your friends and
your family the only difference is these
people have made poor choices and we all
make poor choices in life
some poor choices have very minor
consequences you end up with a bad
haircut poorly dressed or worst case
scenario you embarrass your dog all
right
poor dog other poor choices have much
more severe consequences and you end up
in handcuffs or in prison dressed like
this now as to the belief that nobody
who’s ever gone to jail or prison can
ever contribute to society again well I
just want to point out that Johnny Cash
Tim Allen Danny Trejo Fyodor Dostoevsky
Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela were
all incarcerated and they all
contributed to society after they were
released one of my favorite examples is
his odd a song he’s better known as MVP
not only is he a former WWE wrestler
he’s also a former convict he’s also a
great public speaker and you’re gonna
see that when you go to hashtag prison
debate now if anybody out there still
has doubts as to whether or not somebody
who has been to jail or prison can ever
contribute to society after they’ve been
released maybe you’re a prisoner and you
have doubts about yourself after you’re
released maybe you’re watching this
video and you’re thinking that somebody
who’s incarcerated doesn’t have anything
worth listening to let me just remind
all of you that Joseph Peter Paul and
Jesus Christ we’re all incarcerated so
there’s always potential now I hope that
my perspective has changed some
perceptions so I’ll go ahead and
continue the Texas House of
Representatives House Committee on
Corrections states that many offenders
and many of us on the outside lack the
thinking skills that they need for the
future that are needed for the future
excuse me now this is true you notice
they say many of us because people lack
thinking skills inside and outside of
prison if more people knew how to think
there would be less people in prison now
I’m gonna need everybody’s help tonight
when I point to this side I want
everybody over here to yell teach is
everybody ready ready teach
excellent now when I point to this side
everybody’s gonna yell debate ready
debate okay look I am one of the few
TEDx presenters who has a literal
captive audience all right
the parole office is closed for the day
so nobody’s going anywhere which means
we got plenty of time to get this right
all right let’s try this one more time
ready teach debate thank you any time I
point to y’all tonight
this is what you’re gonna yell is teach
debate excellent the legislature had a
quote that I really liked it says teach
a child the right path and when he is
older he will remain upon it and this is
a brilliant quote but the only problem
is in order to pick the right path you
have to know how to think that’s why
we’re going to excellent we want to
teach debate if we want to help people
improve their thinking skills you see
there are two very important skills
everybody needs in life you need to be
able to be a critical thinker and you
need to have verbal communication skills
and there people are going to argue what
we already teach that in school and
you’re right we do but you have to
remember 36 percent of state prisoners
have less than a high school education
that means these people did not have the
opportunity to learn these skills which
to me seems like a very good reason to
be teaching debate in all prisons and
jails you see research has shown that
people who study debate have improved
critical thinking skills and this isn’t
new research we have studies that go
back to 1949 that show that students
that study debate are better critical
thinkers we have research that shows
debate is the best way to improve
critical thinking if this is the best
method we have to improve critical
thinking why aren’t we teaching it every
school
debate requires you to be a critical
thinker it requires you to think fast as
well see in the debate you start with
five topics each side gets to strike two
of them until you have one resolution to
argue and then you only have 30 minutes
to plan your argument to plan your case
and you can’t use passion and you can’t
use prejudice you have to use logic and
reason when you’re doing this plain and
simple when we teach debate we’re gonna
teach people how to be better thinkers
and we’re going to reduce crime and
recidivism you see recidivism is just a
fancy word for crimes that have already
been that have been committed by people
have been to prison before it’s it’s
nothing it’s still crime and I have yet
to meet anybody who is in prison for
singing too loud in church now I will
tell you I’ve been next to somebody else
singing in church and it might not be a
crime but I’m pretty sure it’s a sin I’m
just gonna tell you not all you but some
of you I just want you to know the Bible
says make a joyful noise you have that
noise part down pat you need to work on
the joyful and this isn’t prejudice
because psalms 100 verse 1
that’s my evidence all right now we’re
going to if we want to reduce prejudice
you see prejudice is an opinion and it
can be favorable or unfavorable
but it’s formed about something and it’s
not based on logic it’s not based on
evidence it’s not reason it’s when
somebody doesn’t take the time or the
consideration to judge fairly as a
matter of fact a prejudiced person is
going to twist distort manipulate even
ignore facts that conflict with their
beliefs when we teach debate people are
going to be less prejudiced
you might not realize this but we allow
prejudice in our lives all the time
prejudice thinking we allow in any time
we take in information a bit from the
internet the radio TV friends family
politicians anytime you accept
information and you take it for granted
being true you don’t look at the
evidence you don’t check the facts
anytime you do this you’re allowing
yourself to be prejudiced but debate is
going to teach you that the only
reasonable time you want to accept
something as being a fact or believe
something is that the evidence requires
you to do so
you see it’s going to teach you to be
more like mr. Spock from Star Trek
you’re going to be logical and for those
of you who don’t like Star Trek it’ll
teach you to be more like mr. data from
next generation we need to teach debate
if we want to reduce violence you see
research has shown that there is a
direct connection between people who
study debate and reduced violence
research also proves that people who
study debate have better skills and are
better equipped to resolve conflict
without violence
you know why does debate have such a
positive effect so well there are many
reasons why but for one it teaches you
how to think and if you know how to
think you’re going to avoid violent
situations to begin with and in addition
to that it teaches you to be a better
communicator which is going to also help
you avoid violence you see when we we
need to teach debate if we want to help
people improve their communications
debate is going to help you improve your
listening your public speaking and your
interview skills see a lot of people
they don’t like to listen they’re not
good at listening we would much rather
hear ourselves talk than have to form a
valid argument or defend our beliefs but
the problem is when we don’t listen to
other people they can cut off
communications altogether which is never
healthy or we can make them angry or
even worse violent you see our beliefs
are a part of who we are our ideas are a
part of who we are your beliefs and your
idea are every bit a part of you as your
arm is a part of you and when somebody
attacks your beliefs it’s just as if
attacking your body your person and what
happens when you’re attacked you want to
defend yourself and you have two choices
to defend yourself verbally or
physically and if you don’t have the
communication skills that you need to
defend yourself verbally you have that
one defense and that’s what can lead to
violence when we teach debate in all
prisons jails and schools people are
learn will learn how to think they will
learn how to make better choices they
will learn how to communicate and this
will also help us reduce violence debate
is going to help you with your public
speaking skills believe it or not more
people fear public speaking more than
they fear death more people are afraid
to come up here and speak than die and
if you’re too afraid to communicate how
will you ever share your ideas how are
you ever going to defend your position
debate is going to help you fight this
fear because it makes you confront your
fear of public speaking I hated public
speaking before I joined the debate team
you can ask mr. key I hated it with a
passion now I’m giving a TEDx talk how
crazy is that
see debate has you arguing topics that
you don’t necessarily agree with and
other topics you don’t know well and
when you can argue topics like these
successfully then you can argue so many
other topics that you are passionate
about the ones that you are
knowledgeable about because you’re going
to have the confidence to do so now
debate is also going to improve your
interview skills believe it or not
interviewing is a part of life we are
always interviewing and not just jobs
this is an interview right now when you
meet somebody for the first time it’s an
interview you’re trying to determine
whether or not you’re going to be
friends and debate is going to help you
with that interview process you see
interviews are very much like a debate
you’re going to have to present your
case you’re going to have to provide
evidence
your claims and you’re going to have to
defend your position and more often than
not you’re gonna have to overcome
prejudices and perceptions in a job
interview how many people have things
they’re gonna have to overcome how many
people have obstacles they have to
overcome all of us maybe you’ve been
fired from a job maybe you don’t have a
job history maybe you’re a felon and
when you study debate you’re gonna learn
how to overcome these obstacles you’re
gonna learn how to win those judges over
because in an interview your interviewer
is your judge and your opponent debate
is going to give you the skills you need
to succeed in this in the audience I
have the rest of the currently College
Huntsville unit debate team we’ve known
each other for a long time now and we’ve
learned a lot about each other and
debate over the years debate it’s safe
to say has allowed all of us to make
better choices in life debate is going
to help us make better decisions it’s
going to help us when we go to the world
many of us are going to use our debate
skills some will use them to find their
to go back to their old jobs and
convince them to rehire them others
might start new careers with their
skills there are a few that might
actually try and win an argument with
their wife but I don’t recommend it
because you can’t win it even when you
win you don’t win just remember two
words yes dear seriously our debate
training is going to help us make better
choices it’s gonna help us in life most
importantly it’s going to help ensure
that we don’t come back to prison
teaching debate in prisons jails and
schools can reduce crime can reduce
recidivism reduce prejudice and reduce
violence and it’s going to teach people
to be better communicators but don’t
take my word for it look at the research
look at my evidence we need to teach
debate in all prisons jails and schools
I’m gonna leave with a challenge I
challenge anyone in a position of
authority to prove me wrong
all you have to do is teach debate in
all prisons jails and schools prove it
doesn’t work prove it does doesn’t do
what I say we need to quit letting
people make mistakes in life and quit
making them learn from mistakes in life
what we need to do is teach them how to
think teach them how to make better
choices and teach them to avoid making
mistakes and we can do this when we
teach debate I’m David and teaching
debate in all prisons jails and schools
is my idea worth sharing thank you
[Applause]
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