rules of debate
I was just thinking about the debate team at my high school. Didn't it seem like they always got away with everything? They just kind of farted around in the library and then went to Las Palapas, and never got in trouble at all. Of course I did the same thing, so please don't think I'm griping. I even wore a tie.
I always thought I would have been a great debater, but one day in about 10th grade I found out what high school debates are like. The judges judge not on how persuasive you are, nor on how informed or powerful your argument is. No, no: they judge based on how quickly you can say a lot of stuff. One kid with a single powerful argument (like, "we shouldn't kill all the students with pimples because killing is wrong") would lose to a kid who spoke 500 words a minute about dermatology.
Why is this? My guess is that debate tourneys didn't start out this way, but evolved bit by bit over the years, till they were at this ridiculous place. But how on earth did it even start?
I always thought I would have been a great debater, but one day in about 10th grade I found out what high school debates are like. The judges judge not on how persuasive you are, nor on how informed or powerful your argument is. No, no: they judge based on how quickly you can say a lot of stuff. One kid with a single powerful argument (like, "we shouldn't kill all the students with pimples because killing is wrong") would lose to a kid who spoke 500 words a minute about dermatology.
Why is this? My guess is that debate tourneys didn't start out this way, but evolved bit by bit over the years, till they were at this ridiculous place. But how on earth did it even start?
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