Re:The Corrosion of High School Debate
by dragonwriter on Tuesday October 10, 2017 @06:53PM
(#15445978)
> That doesn't explain why it's extracurricular.
There is a not-insignificant additional participation cost and time outside the regular school day to participate; that being said, in some schools speech/debate has (at least historically) been "curricular" in that it satisfies core English requirements, rather than being either a pure elective or exclusively extracurricular activity.
> In a nutshell, I don't think the quality of argumentation matters if ordinary people can't keep up with it.
Quality of argumentation doesn't count in debate if the audience can't keep up with it (either in "real life" or high school debate). "Ordinary people" are an abstract concept; the audience always consists of actual people, who vary from any particular concept of "ordinary" in different ways.
There is a not-insignificant additional participation cost and time outside the regular school day to participate; that being said, in some schools speech/debate has (at least historically) been "curricular" in that it satisfies core English requirements, rather than being either a pure elective or exclusively extracurricular activity.
> In a nutshell, I don't think the quality of argumentation matters if ordinary people can't keep up with it.
Quality of argumentation doesn't count in debate if the audience can't keep up with it (either in "real life" or high school debate). "Ordinary people" are an abstract concept; the audience always consists of actual people, who vary from any particular concept of "ordinary" in different ways.