I participate in many speech and debate competitions. I have debated in minor contests at my school and spoken at major events hosted by the government. I enjoy the spotlight when I stand on stage with a microphone in front of me and the focused gaze of my audience.

Speeches and debates are opportunities for people to argue their opinions without holding back. Speakers get the undivided attention of the audience because they are the only one on the stage. Even in a debate, the opponents must listen to the current speaker to rebut their arguments.

Model United Nations (MUN) is a different case. Students pretend to represent countries around the world and participate in committees to discuss current affairs. Even though each country has a stance on a predetermined issue, the focus of MUN events is play acting as leaders of nations rather than substantively analyzing problems.

Model UN is play acting

Most MUN issues are current affairs that are getting lots of public attention such as the Russian-Ukraine war. Generally, most events are complicated, involving history, politics, and many other factors, which explains why most kids actually find discussing these issues confusing.

Most students do not have enough background information on the issues they are asked to discuss. Even though a committee host might provide some information about the issue, much of the work is written by Chat GPT. Frequentionly, MUN delegates simply don’t have enough information and experience to have a constructive discussion about the issues they are tasked with.

To make matters worse, students won’t have a chance to talk much unless they represent a powerful country. In a MUN committee, the delegate’s stance depends on their country. If the represented country isn’t a global superpower or the center of the issue, the delegates may have no say throughout the whole process.

Furthermore, the ideas of participants can be all over the place. Representatives for different countries throw out random ideas and add unnecessary information into discussions.

Some countries try to gain attention from the chair and other delegates by making speeches during the committee. Also, the delegates who need to gain attention usually represent the less important countries related to the issue. This further complicates meetings since more ideas are left unorganized and ignored, leading to a cycle of confusion.

Public speaking allows you to express your own ideas

Instead of MUN, students should consider public speaking and debate clubs and classes.

Public speaking is the perfect opportunity for people to practice under the spotlight. The audience is only focused on one speaker, so they won’t be distracted by other random ideas. Additionally, the crowd has more time to comprehend each word the speakers say and develop their own opinion on the issue presented. So, not only does the speaker have a respectful audience, but the listeners themselves learn a lot too.

The speaker can often choose their own topics for their speeches. They don’t have to discuss complicated and abstract global issues. Instead, speakers can talk about their travel experiences or other topics that they are actually interested in.

Apart from choosing their own topics, speakers learn lots when doing research. For persuasive speeches, speakers must bring in evidence to support their claim to convince other people. While doing research, speakers learn about the issue in depth, rather than only relying on given material, which is what happens at MUN conferences. Doing independent research about an interesting topic and forming an opinion for a respectful audience is much more fulfilling than the mudslinging that always seems to break out in MUN committees.

Debate is a also better experience than MUN

Debate is also an activity that covers current affairs. Unlike MUN, debaters conduct constructive discussions on an issue. Debaters have to come up with plans to either solve a problem or convince the audience to take their side on an issue. In a debate, organized arguments are discussed and then the opponents can rebut.

Most importantly, debate has a clear divide between the affirmative and negative sides. Debaters won’t be puzzled by their stances and their arguments aren’t neutral, which tends to confuse a debate.

Debate has all the best characteristics of MUN, but it is structured in a better format that students learn more from. Most debaters would provide a response to any arguments. Students organize their ideas into arguments and rebuttals where both judges and observers follow the logic clearly.

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MUN should wait until university. College MUNs are more professional because students understand issues better and people in charge are familiar with the format of the committees. Students who study international relations also have knowledge of the relationship between different countries, and even how the UN committee operates.

High school kids should focus on speech and debate. Students can practice their public speaking and organizing skills and save MUN for the future.