Accessibility
From its beginnings, and in the Saskatchewan spirit, SEDA valued accessibility and made the explicit decision to focus on regional access to programing, low cost programing, and other measures to ensure debate remains accessible and a genuine opportunity for all.
Diversity
The act of debating is an act that values diversity as a basic assumption. To be prepared for any debate topic, you must prepare both sides and ready to debate either one regardless of your personal biases. That means understanding multiple viewpoints and seeing the value of diversity perspectives in making everyone’s thinking stronger.
For SEDA, diversity is about valuing the richness and strength that difference has to offer. As an organization dedicated to understanding and discussing diverse worldviews, diversity of intellectual idea has always been a cornerstone of our work. We recognize diversity in our participants as having many facets including race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical abilities, religious beliefs, political beliefs, or other ideologies. We envision a SEDA where genuine equity in access to speech and debate activities and authentic opportunities to participate in the decision making in our organization are the norms for all communities, including ones that are often marginalized. SEDA is Us.
Citizenship and Democratic Values
Our desire in SEDA is that through their involvement with speech and debate, our students will find their voice, use it meaningfully and be engaged citizens.
Leadership
Words are powerful. We seek to encourage students to take leadership and make a difference. We recognize that truly the art of communication is the language of leadership.
Excellence
SEDA values the mindset of growth and lifelong learning within our community. We recognize that speech and debate are hard skills to master but we foster that teachable spirit and willingness to do the hard things.
Excellence is the result of caring more than others think is wise,
rising more than others think is safe,
dreaming more than others think is practical,
and expecting more than others think is possible.
Author Unknown