Advancing Health Literacy among Students: The Intersection between Debate and Health Promotion

Schools are charged with implementing initiatives that positively influence students’ life outcomes. The National Health Education Standards (NHES) lays out a framework for schools to incorporate curricula that achieve the aims of health literacy. Despite positioning health literacy as an integral goal for school-aged students, no concerted efforts have ensured that students equitably receive training that promotes it. The goals proposed by the leading speech and debate institutions are comparable to the NHES in academic achievement, civic literacy, critical thinking, and social-emotional learning. Thus, speech and debate instruction in schools has the potential to promote health literacy and redress larger structural impediments that prevent equal education opportunities and positive health outcomes for all middle and high school students.