A Debate Tournament?!

I signed up to take some home repair courses through the Fairfax County Public Schools’ adult education program. Monday I took a course on plumbing, and tonight I was supposed to have one on minor electrical repair.

The course was at Edison High School, about four blocks from my house. As I was driving there, I thought about the one time I had been to Edison. About seven years ago, just weeks after I moved out to Washington, I went there to judge at a high school debate tournament held there. I was very active in debate when in high school, and I knew other debaters from Edison, and that’s about all I knew about Edison.

So I walked into the school attempting to find room 507. But the front door is at room 101. I look around, and holy shit, I had just walked into the middle of a high school debate tournament!!

Well, I still tried to find room 507, and actually asked a debater from Nebraska for some help. (I mentioned I was formerly a debater, and sure enough, she had heard of my hometown high school team.) Eventually I found room 507, but it was locked and the lights were off. Apparently electricity class was cancelled. So I figured since I was there, and there was a debate tournament going on… I went and watched my first debate in six years.

The event I watched was called “Ted Turner Debate.” (Don’t ask.) It was somewhat similar to the style of debate I participated in, with each side being represented by teams of two. But it had much less emphasis on research and evidence. We used to carry around boxes and boxes of evidence, neatly organized in file folders and “expandos.” My senior year we had five extra-large boxes which must have weighed 150 lbs. Ted Turner Debaters had none of that — maybe five sheets of paper and a notepad.

Oddly enough, the topic they were debating was almost word-for-word identical to the topic we used my freshman year, 10 years ago! I think it was “the U.S. government should guarantee universal health care to all U.S. citizens.”

The arguments were far less developed than in the style of debate we did, for a variety of reasons. For one thing, these teams were freshmen and sophomores,and I doubt we truly knew what we were doing when we were that young. There was a lot of misspoken commentary by everyone in the debate. One guy talked about the “prostate morality rate in the U.S.” (I think he meant “prostate cancer mortality.”) Another guy told a story about his personal life which really could have been used to disprove his whole argument. But the other side never picked up on any of these goofs.

There also was not a lot of “clash” — where one side actually answers the other side’s argument. For example, the affirmative said “Universal health care works in Canada!” … the negative said “But there’s rationing!” … the affirmative just repeated “But it works in Canada!” No one ever talked about how to weigh those two arguments against each other. That’s one of the most critical skills you pick up after debating for a year or two.

Additionally, some of the arguments were incredibly poorly developed. Here’s a quote I heard from a negative speaker: “The affirmative [team] says we must pursue life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. To help people pursue their happiness, you must vote negative.” Ummm, what the fuck? How does that work exactly?

I think the “Ted Turner Debate” is designed to prepare people to argue in Crossfire-like situations, where there are multiple people talking at once, where it’s more influenced by heated rhetoric. (Not that rhetoric is bad… the debating I did was probably overly centered around evidence. There was no room for anyone to add their own logic.) The event, and these teams, all showed promise. I’m seriously considering giving back to the debate community next fall, and trying to help out a team, maybe do some judging or help teach skills to the younger competitors. It could be fun!