Saturday, February 16, 2008
The Adequate Debaters
I judged a high school debate competition this morning. This is not how I typically spend my Saturday mornings; I tend to prefer sleeping until 11 or watching some marathon of something on basic cable. But somehow I felt like a caring nurturer next week, and I decided to get up at 7 and drive to the south side to watch inner city high schoolers shout at each other. I've really got to stop being such a humanitarian.
Judging debate is kind of hard, as it turns out, because everything happens really fast. They try to get as many points out as possible in a short period of time so the other side won't have time to respond to them. It ends up sounding very much like those irritating Jimmy Johns commercials, except without the thought of a delicious sandwich to carry you through. I ended up having no idea what they were saying a lot of the time, so I just judged them on style points. It was a lot like American political process in that regard.
Overall, I though everyone did a really good job. They had these little cases of evidence they used to argue their points, and they frequently employed Clintonian arm gestures in making their cases. This is why I believe that children are our future.
I judged a high school debate competition this morning. This is not how I typically spend my Saturday mornings; I tend to prefer sleeping until 11 or watching some marathon of something on basic cable. But somehow I felt like a caring nurturer next week, and I decided to get up at 7 and drive to the south side to watch inner city high schoolers shout at each other. I've really got to stop being such a humanitarian.
Judging debate is kind of hard, as it turns out, because everything happens really fast. They try to get as many points out as possible in a short period of time so the other side won't have time to respond to them. It ends up sounding very much like those irritating Jimmy Johns commercials, except without the thought of a delicious sandwich to carry you through. I ended up having no idea what they were saying a lot of the time, so I just judged them on style points. It was a lot like American political process in that regard.
Overall, I though everyone did a really good job. They had these little cases of evidence they used to argue their points, and they frequently employed Clintonian arm gestures in making their cases. This is why I believe that children are our future.
