Here is an article by Susan Herbst advocating for mandatory debate training as a return to the principles of the civic in the U.S.
Of course, this article oversimplifies. But the conection between participation in debate and the practice of civility seem questionable.
For the general public, I think the connection is axiomatic. Of course training in “how the other side sees the argument” is perhaps what civil discourse and the political are founded upon to the modern lay mind.
But further than all of this is the idea I forward that debate is training to a new way of life – a self-discipline and an attitude toward the world and the self that is not just revolutionary or some sort of skill development, but a self-renewing revolutionary perspective that allows one to shift and adapt no matter the moment. Something like martial arts and something a bit more rigorous than generic spirituality is what I’m after.
So I like the article, but it’s only scratching the surface, or perhaps it damns with faint praise, and limits the potential of argument and debate.