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STATESMAN DEBATE INSTITUTE

Renowned Instruction and Exceptional Experience

Statesman Debate Institute (SDI) offers American youth in grades 8 to 12 and college, and their faculty, the following:

SDI's Inspiration and History
Video Demonstrating SDI's Superior Approach

For Video, CLICK HERE.

SDI’s programs show the student how to put into action our CLASSICAL THINKER AND LEADER SYSTEM. A webinar that introduces this System is available upon request.

Strategic Knowledge Adult Courses and Debate Camps

Here is the great compliment to American education: Reach for the stars!

Approximately one hundred years ago, American secondary schools simplified Social Studies. 

Rather than educate individual youth to become the best they could be, the emphasis has switched to lift up the group. 

SDI would round out the school system by raising up elite thinkers and doers!

What we offer revives the dream of the sixth president of the United States John Quincy Adams. 20 years prior to ascending to the greatest office in the land, Adams presided over a program to train individuals to their fullest extend, after the fashion of the training that aspiring Roman senators received.

It all starts with SDI’s updated version of Adams program; we call this program “Strategic Knowledge for Schools.” 

Learn how to:

1.   Master relevant (political-economic) information – specifically, how power is accumulated, used and abused, and how the use of it could be reformed.
2.  Pivot, that is, how to advance your particular cause or future career more effectively and in the process contribute to nation-wide renewal.
3.  Overwhelm your debate opponent with a trove of formidable arguments that he or she probably never heard of.
4.  Take your students (if you are a teacher) up to the “mountaintop” of history and civics, and see far beyond the usual training teachers receive. 
4.  Convey information effectively.
5.  Become a far better speaker, debater and leader. 

Read More

Sign Up!

For Faculty, Homeschool Parents and College Students

To access “Strategic Knowledge Private Course” click the image on the left. To access “Strategic Knowledge Group Course” click the image on the right.

For Grades 6 - 12

To access “Strategic Knowledge Debate Camps” click the image above.

Simulating National

Greatness

A Call To Responsibility For College And High School Students! 

Here is the next big thing in Model Congress and Model UN! No prior, special knowledge is required but you learn so much more!

Learn about key developments in domestic and international affairs and what it takes to keep America free. This is a multi-perspective curriculum; it is not limited by the conventional wisdom, care of the mass media, think tanks and latest campus fad. It is also highly realistic: the lead curriculum designer is an experienced public-policy practitioner; you are briefed and participate after the fashion of actual major leaders. In some ways, you may become even better informed than most leaders! 

Greatly improve your critical thinking, public speaking and leadership skills! Find your voice on momentous issues!

Sign Up!

Click Here

Purpose

Program

Our purpose is to train future, responsible leaders. 

Preparing the next generation of leaders, scholars and journalists to uphold a truly healthy America—one that stands upon the constitution and a strong industrial base–, while America continues to engage heavily abroad, is among the biggest challenges facing our country. There needs to be a renewed interest in American studies, global studies and critical thinking. Too many Americans are unaware of the biases in most information that comes their way and what it takes to remain free. 

Round out your education; participate in the Next Big Thing in Model Congress and Model UN Conferences!

“Catastrophic Contagion 2025”

“High-Stakes Climate Policy”

“Arc of War” 
     – Ukraine, Near East and Taiwan –     

Learn More About The Issues Addressed In These Conferences

A New Kind of Model Congress and Model UN 

We conduct a new kind of Model Congress and Model UN. Unlike the norm, it does not emphasize parliamentary maneuver—how to push a bill through Congress or a resolution through the UN. Instead, it provides a highly realistic, substantive experience–stressing the use of primary sources–, a big-picture view of what is actually happening across the nation and world, and an opportunity for each participant to try his or her hand at shaping profoundly important policy.

SDI has conducted four successful, government simulations of the “new” type. Two of these–our “Virus War” Conferences–tackled the Pandemic and the high-level, political and economic US response. One addressed the USMCA. One addressed the National Debt.

Learn More About How These Conferences Work

Conferences will resume in the 2025-2026 school year. 

Nucleus of a Catholic, Classical Debate League

Pending the involvement of a sufficient number of school debate clubs, SDI would gladly participate in or manage a Catholic, classical debate league. 

The idea is to enable the student to experience the CLASSICAL THINKER AND LEADER SYSTEM across the better part of 2 semesters. 

Benefit from our leadership training grounded in the practical application of classical rhetoric and the historical method. 

One thing that sets SDI apart is its emphasis upon best practices in handling not only secondary sources but also primary sources. We show the student how to become, in effect, an expert on a given topic, how to reach his or her own conclusions and how to persuade others to take a free act. 

Our vision of a Catholic, Classical Debate League is a coordinated sequence of debate resolutions. These resolutions not only address current events but also show how Catholic Social Teaching can be applied across a wide range of political-economic issues. 

One of the great applications of the Classical Thinker and Leader System is to take the student to the “mountaintop view” of public policy. Whereas, the student is typically given the impression that American politics has been and is a contest primarily between two camps – liberal and conservative, the proffered System broadens the discourse to include important “third alternatives,” especially Distributism, one of whose proponents was Thomas Jefferson, especially after ascending to the presidency. (Jefferson did not call his policies distributistic. Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum would appear three quarters of a century later and would introduce the term distributistic.)

 

© Copyright, 2023, The Society of Statesmen, Inc, sponsor of Statesman Debate Institute. All Rights Reserved.

Inspiration and History

SDI is inspired and informed by the then US Senator John Quincy Adams, who, in the early 1800s, also chaired the very first Department of Classical Rhetoric, at the college level. Adams wanted to train American youth for greatness the way the Roman-republic elite trained their youth for greatness. He would even go one better, enhancing such training by faith in The Living God. Hence, the rigorous pursuit of Truth.

Tragically, American education in general and even the thriving student forensics circuit falls short of what it could be, in no small part because the globalists hamper critical thinking in our schools. Notice the heavy emphasis in our schools on secondary sources, which, perforce, the globalists can manipulate and limit, through perverse funding.

From 2015 through 2020, SDI was in operation. We coached grades 6-12 and college. The emphasis was upon formal debate (Public Forum and Policy Debate) and upon Model Congress and Model UN. 

Once again, SDI would revive the dream of John Quincy Adams. Moreover, we would elevate our youth’s knowledge of history, economics, politics and government.

Ultimately, SDI’s programs revive the ancient paideia, wherein parent and child speak of the common good morning, noon and night. This is especially the case for homeschooling. Our government simulations are cross-generational. They involve youth and faculty, in other words, youth and parents-teachers.

let’s work together

complete Step 2

Please open a line of communication with CfAR HQ. We will send occasional updates. We will
circulate petitions that are ultimately intended
for elected officials. What are you yourself encountering and achieving, as you complete step 2? Let us know, using the Message Box, below.


Advance Teams go the extra distance to protect the republic and defeat The Great Reset. Moreover, there is an indispensible synergy between these teams and CfAR top leadership. We support them and they support us.

Join An Advance Team

What Mutual Support Entails

Choose One of Two Ways to Participate in an Advance Team:

(1) Join a Team of 10.
Purchase a copy of the Great Pivot Study Guide, for $69.50, which includes all fees—handling, shipping, online course platform and taxes. You will receive the Study Guide’s Prison Report and Climate Report, via USPS Ground Advantage. Online access to Leadership Training Module 1 is via link to Thinkific.com. We will offer you a choice of Teams of 10, whether local or online. Teams of 10 and 1 instructor meet three or more times. The Study Guide is a point of departure for our meetings. Often additional information is made available. Teams of 10 work in tandem with Networkers, too. All sales are final. On occasion, two or more Teams of 10 convene together.

(2) Become a Networker, which, in turn, will connect you to a Team of 10.
Invest $12.99. You will receive intelligence briefs, talking points and ice breakers, via email. You are able to advance the Great Pivot, backstopped by the expertise of the assigned Team of 10, and CfAR HQ. All sales are final.

The main point of the Hubs, including Teams of 10 and Networkers, is to advance the Power of Ten, as discussed in the Great Pivot Call to Action.

(3) Additional memberships, including additional leadership training, will be made available. (See, for instance, Leadership Training Modules Two and Three.) We have a rumble channel care of Dr Arminio’s “America Resurgent with Dr Joe Arminio.” Videos for our Locals channel are ready but not yet posted.

Questions: Please call the CfAR HQ, at 302.300.9611.

Donate to The Great Pivot, as well!

San Modestino Instruction for Professionals

STRATEGIC KNOWLEDGE:
WHAT IT IS and HOW WE CONVEY IT

To convey universal knowledge has always been the dream of educators. Realistically, the minimum aim ought to be to convey "strategic knowledge," namely knowledge of how political-economic power is accumulated, used and abused, and how the use of it could be reformed, in the student's particular country. In the case of the United States (as typically elsewhere), strategic knowledge, first and foremost, addresses the control of currency, credit and banking. Whoever has this control drives all public policy and determines in one way or other all laws. In America, private interests enjoy this control, with profound, negative consequences. We feel these consequences but typically are not told what or who causes them. 

Knowledge of other subjects, especially the constitution, can be strategic, too, but is less or somewhat less important. (What we offer are not courses in the constitution, per se.) 

Toward the end of conveying "strategic knowledge," our courses for professionals roll out as follows.

1.  Instruction resembles an inverted funnel. Absolutely crucial knowledge is conveyed first. The student decides how deeply he or she wants to go. He or she may also decide on applying strategic knowledge to a particular topic or endeavor. For example, a student might want to apply this knowledge to his or her electoral campaign, or a teacher might want to apply it to courses that he or she teaches.

2.  The student acquires the core syllabus (2 to 4 books). Additional material might be assigned in response to #1 above, and #4 and #6 below. Live instruction utilizes some but hardly all passages of the books and readings. The instructor will recommend certain other passages in the books for future reading after the course is over.

3.  Instruction divides into live (online or in-person) sessions.

4.  In the first session, the student shares something of his foreknowledge of civics and economics. 

5.  What has been shared in #4 becomes the point of departure of the instruction. Based on what has been shared, the instructor tailors instruction to the student.

6.  Instruction divides into a minimum of 3 sessions, including the session involving #4. It is important that student and instructor are able to reflect on assigned readings, instruction and interaction in between live sessions.  

7.  The conveying of strategic knowledge can be either a stand-alone exercise or part and parcel of other instruction in critical thinking and oratory techniques. (See the offered courses.) 

Our programs are informed by the practice of one of Harvard's greatest professors - the then US Senator John Quincy Adams and soon-to-be, sixth President of the United States. Adams was the first Chair of Harvard’s Department of Classical Rhetoric in 1805, and was inspired by the training that aspiring Roman Senators received.