The ultimate goal of the KPDP program in the CR is first and foremost learning . The difference between debate and the “normal” school-type learning is that debating has an indisputable advantage in its enormous motivation for the students. For them, learning seems to be means, a tool to achieve their own short-term goal - a win in a debate. They do not learn for learning itself as is often the case with a “normal” school-type education, but rather learning becomes their necessary equipment to achieve their goal.

While preparing themselves for the competitions they then (both intentially and unintentially) fulfill the long-term objectives of the KPDP in the CR that are to be seen in following spheres:

a) Within the sphere of education the KPDP recognises following objectives:

- to help form desirable patterns of behaviour and value scales, notably:

- by developing a sense of fair play

- by developing teamwork skills

- by strengthening self-esteem by giving them the courage to publicly present and support their work as well as to publicly evaluate other’s opinions

- by learning decent public behaviour

b) The attainments sphere

can be further sub-divided into several important sub-categories. Basically the goal of the KPDP in the CR within this specific category is to help its participants to deepen their knowledge in an entertaining and competitive way.

As A. J. Toynbee, a prominent British historian, once said: “The aim of debating is to learn, not to win. Or rather learning is the only form of victory which makes sense.”

Specifically, KPDP in the CR sets the following objectives within the attainments category:

i) Oratory

- to deepen knowledge about the peculiarities of speech

- to teach skills of composing a meaningful speech

- to develop skills of presenting a public speech in an accomplished and meaningful way

- to teach and develop the ability to speak quickwittedly, promptly, in an intertesting manner and matter-of-factedly

- to help build vocabulary, clarify the importance of non-verbal communication and “voice-work”, and to help employ these in practice

ii) Information hadling

- to develop (both in theory and in practice) research skills and the ability to organize and utilize information

- to further their ability to distinguish fact from opinion, to recognize the possible problems in information sources, and to competently analyze the relativity, reliability, and interpretation of information

- to deepen their ability to use gathered information in everyday life and societal decisions

iii) Using the IT

- to help increase skills of using modern high tech IT for informational and educational purposes

iv) Logic

- to introduce problematics of logical reasoning

- to deepen ability and skills to

- construct logical arguments

- detect argumentation fallacies

- distinguish between relevant and irrelevant, major and minor arguments

- support an argument by relevant proof

- to develop the ability to see a dialogue within a broader context, notably within the context of information and argumentation logic

- to broaden the philosophical roots of discourse as a means to fuller self-recognition and discovering truth

Thanks to the KPDP activities in the CR, many people who share an interest in self-improvement have become acquinted and many new friendships have been established. Teachers from all over the country and the world who genuinely care about their students future intellectual development have been given the opportunity to meet and share their ideas. This also belongs among the goals of the debate program in this country.

We stress that all of the above mentioned objectives are met in an entertaining way. That is why, perhaps, debating is more and more popular among young people in this country and is sought as a popular extra-curricural activity. This interest is then further made use of by the teachers of Czech and English languages, history, social sciences and other school subjects, who, through debating, have discovered an effective tool to help fulfill educational and attainments goals in their own respective subjects.