The Corrosion of High School Debate—And How It Mirrors American Politics

[LDoBe]

@d_r

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.

How much consideration can you give to an argument if the whole process of debate prep is memorizing hundreds of points regardless of the actual words so you can ramble them out faster than the human auditory system can even process the language?