DISENGAGEMENT II

[MARTY MOST <RCNMOST@idbsu.idbsu.edu>]

Might as well reply to everyone at once.

TO MICHAEL BRYANT: I don't think debate is worthless, nor did I refer to debate
in toto as such. I spoke to "such rounds" as Larry Galzaio described. Every
semester, I see excellent debates and outstanding debaters. I'm cetainly not re
vulsed by debate, but I am discouraged by the notion that debates has "gone
private" and is no longer intended for public consumption.

TO MATTHEW ROSKOSKI: Nice strawman.

TO MICHAEL KORCOK: After seven years as a debater and seventeen as a debate
coach, I do have a tendency to forget to qualify myself. Perhaps it is
because my advanced degrees are in education, curriculum and instruction, not
communication.

Several years of teaching Research Methods courses make me skeptical that there
exists any such thing as an "unanimously favorable" social science research
finding. And I certainly question the conclusion you reach (independent of
the researchers) that "speaking faster makes you smarter."  The research seems
to indicate a correlation based on mental maturation, and does not identify
practice as a dependent variable. Putting those objections aside however, it's
worth noting that memory (recall) is the lowest cognitive function human beings
are capable of (should you choose to accept the RESEARCH of Benjamin Bloom in
his _Taxonomy of Education Outcomes_, and other published works.)  As a debate
educator, I aim higher. I want my students to progress up the taxonomy to the
levels of analysis, synthesis and evaluation (including the application of
external criteria), and to do so in such a fashion that these higher stages
of cognition can be readily observed.  I am not interested in training short
term memories.  It is my pedogogical goal to educate whole persons.  When we
try to defend debate as a memory improvement (or oral speed-reading) course,
we do the activity no service.

TO DAVID FRANK: Thanks.

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