Glad to see there are fella debators on /. I was too, and I was a very successful one (1st place state and ranked 5th in the country) - I've since diverged from the career path of my friends from those days (most of them end up in law or something similar) and I went on to a technical career. But I will say, looking back on it 20 years later - that that was the most useful skill I ever learned in life: to be able to walk in front of a crowd of any size and know through hard earned experience that I can engage them without fail.