I was a high school debater in the 70s, during the rise of speed-debating. I was able to do that, but in my last year – with the help of a partner who was trained in England – I slowed way down; we didn’t win as much, but we still did reasonably well, enjoyed ourselves more, and the judges seemed happy with our willingness to ignore or dismiss half of our opponents’ points and focus in on the major ones. Perhaps the ones that came later were more prone to count that as a fault.
That said, I don’t understand this objection:
an intellectual game, not an exercise in truth-seeking. It has been turned into something that can easily be scored
The point of debate in high school is precisely to train students in crafting arguments regardless of one’s personal beliefs; this not only hones a student’s rhetorical skills, but also gives them willingness to give fair consideration to both sides of an argument.
