[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
[Date Index]
[Thread Index]
[Author Index]
Return to main CEDA-L Archive Page
Re: That oldtime Speed
In Message Tue, 23 Nov 1993 "Michael K. Davis" > writes:
I
>think every debater debates to win, maybe not trophies, but at least to
>win a round or an arguement. This is why debate is not an educational
>activity. In an educational activity everyone wins, but in debate someone
>always wins and someone always loses. All of us I think would prefer to win.
>
While I must whole-heartedly agree that winning and competetition are very
important. :-) To say that debate is not educational because someone wins and
loses is rather odd. The implication of what Mike is saying is that a losing
team has learned nothing. I think in most cases a losing team team learns
something, they may learn about another idea (ie a disad they had no answers
to or case turns they hadn't thought of) or about certain critics opinion
of various things. They also learn by having their arguments critically
examined by people besides they teamates (I learned more and more about
cbyer-comm as the season progressed because people outside of Cornell were
able to think critcally about it, and shared those opinions with me in
rounds -- At the beginning of semseter all I knew was, it was a "MASSIVE GLOBAL
BRAIN", I had no idea that, cigerette vendors in the Philippines were key
to the cbyer-revolution, as several UofR teams kindly pointed out). Also
because every debate round is different, the both teams will usually learn
more about debate ideas, techniques and strategies etc.. each round. So
although the losing team usually isn't happy, they shouldn't let the
frustation of losing blind them to things that they can learn from round.
Over and Out
Todd Morth (CU)
Follow-Ups:
Archive created by Jonathan Stanton (jonathan@cs.jhu.edu)
Return to main CEDA-L Archive Page