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re:student judges
Jeff Hobbs writes:
> Date sent: Wed, 06 Dec 1995 15:39:18 CST
> The subject of student judges has reminded me of what I perceive to be
> a double standard in academic debate. The debate community has accepted
> students/debaters as equal in status to coaches/theorists of debate. So
> debaters don't have to quote articles on debate to prove a theoretical
> point. Their theory is as good as a published argument.
Well, of course. We are now an "educational" activity (insert any
form of smiley face here) in which all too often people with
Ph. D.s and years of training in argumentation theory are labelled
oppressors and backchanneled in even viler fashion if they even hint
that they believe a debate judge has any role in teaching those who
have not yet completed undergraduate training anything about debate.
There was once a day when the debate tournament was considered
primarily an educational incentive to expose one's debaters to
education from people they couldn't hear from at their own school.
Now, it seems the only really important thing about debate
tournaments is making sure the "right" team (whatever that means)
gets the appropriate mix of plastic and wood.
As far as student judges go; I support it if it's done as I remember
it being done at Cal Poly SLO. Coaches were asked to carefully
select their varsity debaters who would be eligible to judge as 1/3
of an elim panel. Coaches made that a part of their debaters'
education. Debaters took it seriously, and I think learned a lot.
So I support limited student judging under educational guidelines,
but if this is about "fairness" or any other such nothing-word, I'm
not very interested.
Terry West
Southern Utah U.
Archive created by Jonathan Stanton (jonathan@cs.jhu.edu)
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