> High school debate today is basically an intellectual game, not an exercise in truth-seeking. It has been turned into something that can easily be scored. This eliminates the complexity and intricacy of real discourse about real issues. If debate is a game, then the execution of a “spread” is like a well-timed blitz in football. Convincing a judge that your opponents’ arguments would cause human extinction is equivalent to a successful Hail Mary pass.
I agree with this quote so much. I was on the debate and robotics team in high school, we did extemporary style in debate. I ended up leaving the debate team and focusing entirely on robotics because debate taught students how to argue, not how to listen. Whenever debate kids would leak into robotics, they would cause endless looping conversations talking about different designs.
The main issue is that high school debate doesn't teach how to listen well, only how to hear well. If debate was more freeform so students could actually form opinions based on what they thought about the resolution, then I believe this problem would be fixed. I have a friend who did my proposed style and said that it was extremely fun, and turned debate into a problem solving exercise.
I agree with this quote so much. I was on the debate and robotics team in high school, we did extemporary style in debate. I ended up leaving the debate team and focusing entirely on robotics because debate taught students how to argue, not how to listen. Whenever debate kids would leak into robotics, they would cause endless looping conversations talking about different designs.
The main issue is that high school debate doesn't teach how to listen well, only how to hear well. If debate was more freeform so students could actually form opinions based on what they thought about the resolution, then I believe this problem would be fixed. I have a friend who did my proposed style and said that it was extremely fun, and turned debate into a problem solving exercise.