80 Debate Topics for Kids in Elementary, Middle, and High school

Encouraging your child to participate in debates at school has many benefits. A debate is nothing but a formal discussion between two or more people where everyone takes turns to share their thoughts on a particular topic, backed by facts and informed opinions. 

Taking a part in debates can help your child gain more knowledge, learn from others, develop his/her thoughts, and become more confident, among others. Let’s have a look at how debates can help your child expand his/her horizons in detail below. 

How debating helps your child

Debating helps your child grow in several ways.

Improves critical thinking

Debating helps your child to think critically. 

Your child can analyze a topic, working out the pros and the cons, to formulate balanced arguments. Self-reflection, a part of debate prep, can also help your child identify inconsistencies or gaps in his/her own thoughts, which helps in strengthening the arguments. 

As a result, your child also learns to articulate his/her feel better. E.g., instead of saying, “I don’t like veggies”, your child will be able to explain or give specific reasons as to why he/she doesn’t like vegetables. 

Helps organize thoughts

While debating, your child learns to structure his/her thoughts and opinions logically. This enables your child to express himself/herself clearly. 

Improves language and communication skills

Debating helps your child gain valuable language and communication skills. 

Your child learns to think, talk, and listen at the same time, which results in improved comprehension and articulation.

Since your child learns to listen to his/her opponents, it helps him/her understand other ideas, philosophies, and points of view, and accept contradictory opinions with grace.

Builds self-confidence and public speaking skills

Debating before an audience helps your child gain confidence to speak in a social setting and enhances his/her public speaking skills. It pushes your child out of his/her comfort zone and makes him/her more outgoing. This, in turn, helps build your child’s personality. 

If your child has stage fright or a fear of speaking in public, then debating is one way of overcoming this fear. 

Increases tolerance

Debating makes your child more tolerant of other people and their opinions. As your child is exposed to all schools of thought and differing perspectives on the same subject, he/she gains an understanding that not everyone thinks alike and there is room for different opinions. 

How to pick debate topics for kids

While picking debate topics for kids, take care that they are:

• Age-appropriate: Elementary school students, for instance, should get easier debate topics than middle school students. 

• Widely appealing: The debate topics should be exciting and creative and enable students to understand and form different viewpoints and perspectives.

• Thought-provoking: The debate topics should not only hook the students’ interest but also give them enough food for thought.

Keeping this in mind, we have provided below a list of interesting debate topics for kids by age and education level, i.e., elementary, middle, and high school. 

Debate topics for elementary students

Debate topics for elementary/primary students (ages 5–10) should be easy and appealing. The following are some easy debate topics for elementary students: 

1. School should start early in the morning. 

2. Who is better, Batman or Superman?

3. Should children be allowed to eat cakes and chocolates for dinner?

4. Are cats better than dogs?

5. Should children be given an allowance?

6. Should children be allowed to stay up as late as they want?

7. Should pets be allowed to come to school?

8. Which is better, homeschooling or going to school?

9. Children need to brush and bathe every day, even on holidays. 

10. Should children wear uniforms or casuals to school?

11. Should soda be banned?

12. Should children be allowed to use smartphones in school?

13. Should children be able to watch whatever they want on TV?

14. Should everyone make the school sports teams?

15. How many hours should you spend on electronic devices in a day?

16. Which is better, peanut butter or Nutella?

17. Which is better, the beach or the mountains?

18. How many recesses should children have at school?

19. Every girl should have a Barbie and every boy a G.I. Joe. 

20. Birthday gifts should not be expensive.

Debate topics for middle school students

Debate topics for middle school students (ages 11–13) should be a little more challenging than those for elementary students.

Some more advanced debate topics for middle school students are as follows:

1. Video games encourage violence.

2. Smoking should be outlawed. 

3. Smartphones should be banned in school. 

4. Homework should be outlawed. 

5. Children should not be allowed to have a social media presence.

6. Parents have no right to look at their child’s phones.

7. Should YouTube be outlawed or regulated better?

8. Children should never be spanked. 

9. What should be the age to vote?

10. All children should play a sport. 

11. If children are not good at studies, they need to take tuition. 

12. Bullies should be punished. 

13. Climate change is real. 

14. All children should have a job. 

15. Children can go on vacations with their friends without parental supervision. 

16. Movie stars are heroes.

17. Peer pressure is a good thing. 

18. Everyone should be a vegetarian. 

19. School students should not dye their hair. 

20. Middle school grades do matter later in life. 

Debate topics for high school students 

Debate topics for high school students (ages 14–18) should require higher-level thinking and could be a little more controversial. The following are some interesting debate topics for high school students:

1. College should be free.

2. Everyone deserves the same education. 

3. Everyone should earn the same amount of money. 

4. Women’s rights should be taken more seriously.

5. High school students should be able to drink and party if they choose. 

6. You should not have unlimited data. 

7. Social media should be banned. 

8. Censorship is happening every day. 

9. School should be online completely. 

10. Board exams should not matter. 

11. High school sports are important. 

12. Students should be punished for bad grades. 

13. Animals should always be used for medical testing. 

14. Parents should buy everything that their children want.

15. The death penalty should be banned. 

16. Boys and girls should play on the same team. 

17. Sex education should be mandatory. 

18. The legal age for marriage should be 30.

19. Computers will replace jobs. 

20. High schools should be single-sex. 

Funny debate topics for kids

Here’s a list of funny debate topics that are great for children of all ages, be it young children, tweens, or teens, and even for beginners learning the English language:

1. Would you rather be a rabbit or a tortoise?

2. What came first? The chicken or the egg?

3. Starbucks should give free coffee to students. 

4. Anime is better than cartoons. 

5. Who are better teachers? Men or women?

6. What would you do if you lived forever?

7. Children under 16 should be allowed to run for office. 

8. Children should be allowed to use smartphones only when they turn 18. 

9. ‘Smartphones make us stupid. 

10. What’s the best pizza topping?

11. No one should ever tell a lie. 

12. Which is a better dessert? Cake or ice cream?

13. Aliens may be living among us. 

14. Clowns are scary. 

15. Math is as important as cricket.

16. Kids are smarter than grownups. 

17. Is it better to be silly or smart?

18. Should teachers have to wear a school uniform?

19. Candy should be given each day for attending school. 

20. Students should be paid to go to school. 

There you have it. Eighty interesting debate topics for kids across ages. 

If you need expert advice or solutions for your child’s unique education problems, feel free to ask our experts here.