At national tournaments, judges are making their stances clear: students who argue âcapitalism can reduce povertyâ or âIsrael has a right to defend itselfâ will loseâno questions asked.
By James Fishback
My four years on a high school debate team in Broward County, Florida, taught me to challenge ideas, question assumptions, and think outside the box. It also helped me overcome a terrible childhood stutter. And I wasnât half-bad: I placed ninth my first time at the National Speech & Debate Association (NSDA) nationals, sixth at the Harvard national, and was runner-up at the Emory national.
After college, between 2017 and 2019, I coached a debate team at an underprivileged high school in Miami. There, I witnessed the pillars of high school debate start to crumble. Since then, the decline has continued, from a competition that rewards evidence and reasoning to one that punishes students for what they say and how they say it.
First, some background. Imagine a high school sophomore on the debate team. Sheâs been given her topic about a month in advance, but she wonât know who her judge is until hours before her debate round. During that time squeezeâperhaps sheâll pace the halls as I did at the 2012 national tournament in Indianapolisâsheâll scroll on her phone to look up her judgeâs name on Tabroom, a public database maintained by the NSDA. Thatâs where judges post âparadigms,â which explain what they look for during a debate. If a judge prefers competitors not âspreadââspeak a mile a minuteâdebaters will moderate their pace. If a judge emphasizes âimpactsââthe reasons why an argument mattersâdebaters adjust accordingly.
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