the first affirmative

1…

Jon Cruz — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 10:00:34 +0000

THE VICTORY BRIEFS INSTITUTE — The Victory Briefs Institute at Loyola Marymount University begins tomorrow.

Urban Debate Camp Comes to Texas

Alfred Charles Snider — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 07:33:00 +0000

Image via WikipediaFrom urbandebatecamp@yahoo.com“URBAN DEBATE CAMP RETURNS FOR SECOND YEAR, CONTINUING TO PAVE WAY FOR SUCCESS - Experienced and Novice students return to camp, taking their Forensic events to the next level of competition.”After an extremely successful first year, Rodney Mays and the Urban Debate Camp are prepared to raise the standards of the important program to the next level

FEED: Civil rights

Jim Menick — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 16:30:00 +0000

Very interesting piece on socialism/communism/capitalism/liberalism and the history of race relations.

{As quoted from the former Nation of Islam leader Malcolm X]: "You can't have racism without capitalism. If you find antiracists, usually they're socialists or their political philosophy is that of socialism."

Spend time on most college campuses and you're likely to hear something very similar. Progressives and leftists, the conventional narrative goes, fought the good fight while conservatives and libertarians either sat it out or sided with the bad guys. But there's a problem with this simplistic view: It completely ignores the fact that classical liberalism—which centers on individual rights, economic liberty, and limited government—played an indispensable role in the fight for equal rights. More...

2…

Jon Cruz — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 12:00:00 +0000

THE VICTORY BRIEFS INSTITUTE — There are two days remaining until the start of the 2009 installment of the Victory Briefs Institute at Loyola Marymount University, the first of our two summer sessions. We look forward to greeting over two hundred students on Sunday!

IDEA News for July

Alfred Charles Snider — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 10:29:00 +0000

From cphillip@idebate.orgClimate Advocacy Institute features engaging debates on the Aegean coastFacilitators are posting Institute video as the action happens. Watch them all on BlipTV or our blog.From instructor David Douglass:The Debate and Argumentation track at the CAI has gotten off to a terrific start. Our group is comprised of a wide range of nationalities and interests, but everyone

GFD Welcomes a Third Heidt, Stephen Heidt!

Jeffrey Miller — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:13:55 +0000

I just came across an interesting story. Georgia State University proudly announced in May that Stephen Heidt has joined the GSU Coaching Staff. Joe Bellon writes, Stephen Heidt joins the Georgia State University coaching staff (and the GSU Ph.D program in Communication) after nine years out of debate. As a collegiate debater at Emory [...] Related posts:

PF 2009 Part 5

Jim Menick — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:30:00 +0000

Debate is debate. I think we can easily make the mistake that different kinds of debate are more different than they actually are. Their forms and structures may be slightly different, and their content may be radically different, but their underlying essence is identical. In a debate, we are trying to convince someone of something. In academic debate, we have rules to guide how we do that convincing. But in the end, it’s all about the convincing.

The unfortunate tribalism of high school forensics asserts that whichever activity the group is participating in is the best, and all the rest are less than the best. This is no different from supporting one’s football team or baseball team as the best, not because they win all the time, but because there is some inherent aspect of that particular team that just makes them better in the eyes of the beholder. It is all entirely arbitrary. There is no more reason to root for the Mets than to root for the Yankees unless one is to judge them entirely on win/loss record, which is not how fans become fans. Fans identify with something about their team, and then the fanaticism sets in, the word fan of course being derived from the word fanatic. At least the high school forensician is a part of the group that he or she is hailing as the best; since none of the Mets or Yankees fans I know are actually either Mets or Yankees, their commitment is beyond my understanding. But my inability to identify with sports fans is not the point here. The point is that, if you’re a Polician, you think Policy is the best, and you look down on LDers. LDers used to have to do their sneering at Speecho-Americans (who have their own hierarchies), but now that PF is around, LDers get to look down at Pfffters. The VCA knows that I personally feel that all forensics activities are valuable, and I have argued that at great length in the past, so I won’t repeat it here. But PF, because it is new, probably has to work the hardest to get any respect. LD used to be the upstart, but after 30 years or so that’s really not the case anymore. But on the other hand, most coaches today recall not too long ago the birthing pains of PF, its various name changes and the like, and some of us have yet to accept it as a full-blooded activity in its own right.

The students, however, know little or none of this. PF has been around long enough now that no student recalls from firsthand experience any of those birthing pains. The name Ted Turner rings no bells whatsoever. PF is, simply, PF. (By the way, a lot of what I’m saying here has been said by others, but I can’t cite who because it was a while ago and I’ve internalized it. Feel free to step forth if you’ve said it first.) But that doesn’t mean that PF doesn’t get a bum rap as the new kid on the block. It’s the newness that’s the problem. Any new kid will feel the heat.

I think that a lot of LD coaches may, no matter how much we wish to treat PF as an equal activity, come to it initially as Debate Lite. I say this not to accuse others but to accuse myself. Even the cursory lecture I gave on PF, which is about all I had to say on the subject, treated it as if it were a piece of cake once one had mastered the art of LD. But giving myself over to some serious study of the activity, including judging hither and yon for a while, has convinced me of what I instinctively knew but was denying, that PF is complete, and, done well, it’s hard. It isn’t “lite” anything. It’s PF. It’s debate. It’s good stuff.

But as I began, all debate at some point is, still, debate. It’s about convincing people that your side is right and the other side is wrong.

And I still haven’t gotten around to the specifics of applying LD to PF. Okay, next time. I promise that maybe next time I’ll get down to it.

You can take that to the bank.

Across America: Mountain Brook High School

Jon Cruz — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:20:34 +0000

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — “Across America” highlights squads across our country that compete in Lincoln-Douglas debate — local circuit, regional circuit, national circuit — and other forensic events.

Jeff Roberts, the director of the Mountain Brook High School Debate Team, agreed to be interviewed for the third installment of “Across America.”

FOUNDED: “Mountain Brook had a debate club [that was] very inactive during the late 70s; the sponsor varied. The first formal debate team began in 1981 under Coach Betty Gunn, now a member of the Alabama Debate Coach’s Hall of Fame. Mountain Brook’s Charter NFL year was 1984.”
FOUNDER: Betty Gunn

PRESENT DIRECTOR: Jeffrey W. Roberts
PAST AND PRESENT DIRECTORS AND ASSISTANT COACHES:

Betty Gunn -– 1981-1997
David Seale –- 1998-2004
Jeff Roberts -– Assistant, 2004-2005; Head Coach: 2006-Present

“We will have a new Assistant Coach in 2009-10, Ms. Katie McLure, formerly the head coach of Homewood High School. She will be mainly coaching Public Forum and IE next season, but assisting in a bit of everything.”

EVENTS: Lincoln-Douglas debate, policy debate, Public Forum debate, Student Congress, Individual Events (DI, HI, OO, PR, PO, IMP, ADS, EXT)

How do you recruit new students at the beginning of each season?

We have an introductory level junior high class — the coach does several visits to the junior high to promote the team, we also invite interested junior high members out to spring tournaments and debate socials.

What makes speech and debate at your program special?

We strive to be the flagship of debate in Alabama and we feel we have made great strides toward achieving that goal over the last five years. It is our continued effort toward improving our team and our debate accomplishments that makes our team special.

Are there any recent accomplishments about which your team is particularly proud

We won the Overall State Championship for 2009 –- a first win since 1994. [We shared] the title in 2001 with Saint James, so fifteen years since an outright win. It makes our ninth State Championship. We also again won the Debate State Championship which makes our fifth straight win in Debate. Our team qualified students in all three debate events to the TOC a feat only accomplished in 2009 by one other program (the highly respected Bronx Science of New York). Our Public Forum team went all the way to quarterfinals at the TOC…. We had many great National Circuit showings and wins this year, but we were most proud of our Championship in Public Forum at Bronx Science, our third place in Sweepstakes at Wake Forest (when we only brought LD and Policy debaters), and our third straight appearance in the final round of Novice Policy at Glenbrooks.

STUDENT TESTIMONIAL: “In my three years on the team, I’ve seen Mountain Brook debate grow from a predominantly in-state team to an extremely competitive national team,” notes Amanda Claire Grayson, this past year’s captain of Public Forum debate. “The students are constantly upping their game and garnering more accomplishments, while our fabulous coaching staff (of two) work so hard to provide us more and more opportunities to compete on the national circuit and show our skill and style!”

Menick on Public Forum, Part 4

PFDebate LLC — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:36:52 +0000

Part 4 of Jim Menick’s series on Public Forum Debate has been posted at Coachean Life. Part 4 focuses on case writing.

Results from Australs - It Is Monash

Alfred Charles Snider — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 18:35:00 +0000

Image via WikipediaFrom http://worlddebating.blogspot.com/2009/07/monash-win-australs.html Monash Win Australs From Chris Bishop's Facebook page.Australasian Debating Champions 2009: Monash (on a 5-4 split)Best speaker in Grand Final: Amit Golder (Monash)ESL Winners: University of IndonesiaTop 10 speakers:1. Amit Golder (Monash)2. Claudia Newman Martin (ANU)3. Tim Jeffrie4. Chris Croke5. Fiona