Washington policy debate is resurgent (Georgetown Day School, Thomas Jefferson)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Policy is for nerds who like little wheelbarrows full of sad notecards. Parliamentary all the way.


Welcome to 2018. Policy debaters do not use notecards anymore, it's all done via laptops, dropbox, and flashdrives.

The figurative wheelbarrows remain.

Much lighter now, just a flash drive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I debated in high school and college, and would love for my own children to do policy debate in high school. It is an activity that develops your reasoning, critical thinking, and ability to act quickly and strategically, as well as your reading, research, and presentation skills. Fast talking and a developed knowledge of philosophy are a must in policy debate as it has currently evolved. I also love that debate remains an egalitarian competition in which the name and wealth of your school does not give you an advantage, and in which students from small-town, obscure mid-western high schools (like mine) compete on equal footing with students from the best, large metropolitan public schools, and the elite southern, tx, and east/west coast privates. You are judged, and have to earn your wins round-by-round, tournament-by-tournament, dedicating many hours to research, practice, and travel, and making friends from high schools around the country in the process. Some number of us even end up as professionals in Washington, often as attorneys.

Back in my day, several decades, there were a number of good Washington area teams on the national circuit, including Georgetown Day and Thomas Jefferson. The strong local schools participating have been culled a bit since the '90s, which I attribute to the time commitment the activity requires. My own children are still a few years away from high school, but it is with interest that I have watched Jon Sharp and Alex Lennon, themselves college debaters, take the helm at GDS and TJ respectively. I am excited to see that GDS (2 teams) and TJ (1 team) both currently have teams with at least one TOC bid, and that both schools had team(s) break at a recent national tournament in Lexington. GDS teams appear to have won both the novice division and made the varsity final (it looks like there was no varsity final held). It is nice to see these two local schools resurgent on the national circuit, though unfortunately TJ won't be an option for us, as we live in DC itself.

Potomac School now has an excellent debate team. Harry Strong, a nationally-recognized coach, was hired last year to lead the program.

[Anonymous]

You should know that unless your kid comes into GDS with a lot of debate experience, they probably won’t make the team. I believe GDS actually recruits debaters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You did not select the policy toggle in the upper right. You must of selected LD. Re-do and the data will appear.

Ah, that explains it. Thx.

When I was in school, the policy debaters had some of the best access to drugs. I think it's because they went to all the national tournaments and developed supply lines.

[Anonymous]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ltpndj_YPdU

NDT at its finest...GU versus Wake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Which is the one where they talk 100 miles an hour and (to an uneducated observer) it seems like it's kind of akin to fencing with scoring as many points as you can (thus the fast talking)? Is that policy? ...

Yes, that is policy debate. Each team is a partnership of two individuals.

The auctioneer-style speed talking is what I recall too. It seemed to me like a contest of who could best memorize a list of points and regurgitate them the fastest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You should know that unless your kid comes into GDS with a lot of debate experience, they probably won’t make the team. I believe GDS actually recruits debaters.

This is not correct. Any student is welcome to join the GDS debate team, the coach Jon Sharp is as nice, low key, and down-to-earth a person as they come. GDS does not recruit for debaters either, as it does not specifically recruit its athletes (unlike some of the other private schools in the same athletic conference). Policy debate is a unique activity, and it does take some time to develop the skill of it, but I have seen many ultimately successful debaters begin their freshman year with no prior debate experience. Students have to be patient and stick with the activity through sometimes years of losing records at tournaments, because policy debate is an activity that rewards experience, practice, and long term commitment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ltpndj_YPdU

NDT at its finest...GU versus Wake.

Last year's TOC final round of policy debate. You have to scroll about 35 minutes in for the start.


[youtube]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G09N9NIAQ68[/youtube]

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Which is the one where they talk 100 miles an hour and (to an uneducated observer) it seems like it's kind of akin to fencing with scoring as many points as you can (thus the fast talking)? Is that policy? ...

Yes, that is policy debate. Each team is a partnership of two individuals.

The auctioneer-style speed talking is what I recall too. It seemed to me like a contest of who could best memorize a list of points and regurgitate them the fastest.

Not really. You have to constantly develop and expand your case so as to keep the other teams on their toes, and additionally you have to research, understand, and be prepared to respond to the cases any of the other 75-145 teams you might encounter at a national circuit tournament. You have to be ready to argue the affirmative or the negative side in any given round. Then you have to sit and listen atently to both your own partner, and the other side, so as not to miss, drop, or fail to make, or respond to, arguments. And you have to do that over and over again for the 1 hr. and 50 min. of a typical round, times the anywhere from 5-7 preliminary rounds at a given tournament, followed by - if you are lucky - another four out-rounds (octos, quarters, semis, finals), over the period of a long, three-day weekend.

There is a reason another previous poster said that "I've seen some superstar genius folks with that background." It can be intellectually, vocally, and physically grueling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I debated in high school and college, and would love for my own children to do policy debate in high school. It is an activity that develops your reasoning, critical thinking, and ability to act quickly and strategically, as well as your reading, research, and presentation skills. Fast talking and a developed knowledge of philosophy are a must in policy debate as it has currently evolved. I also love that debate remains an egalitarian competition in which the name and wealth of your school does not give you an advantage, and in which students from small-town, obscure mid-western high schools (like mine) compete on equal footing with students from the best, large metropolitan public schools, and the elite southern, tx, and east/west coast privates. You are judged, and have to earn your wins round-by-round, tournament-by-tournament, dedicating many hours to research, practice, and travel, and making friends from high schools around the country in the process. Some number of us even end up as professionals in Washington, often as attorneys.

Back in my day, several decades, there were a number of good Washington area teams on the national circuit, including Georgetown Day and Thomas Jefferson. The strong local schools participating have been culled a bit since the '90s, which I attribute to the time commitment the activity requires. My own children are still a few years away from high school, but it is with interest that I have watched Jon Sharp and Alex Lennon, themselves college debaters, take the helm at GDS and TJ respectively. I am excited to see that GDS (2 teams) and TJ (1 team) both currently have teams with at least one TOC bid, and that both schools had team(s) break at a recent national tournament in Lexington. GDS teams appear to have won both the novice division and made the varsity final (it looks like there was no varsity final held). It is nice to see these two local schools resurgent on the national circuit, though unfortunately TJ won't be an option for us, as we live in DC itself.

Potomac School now has an excellent debate team. Harry Strong, a nationally-recognized coach, was hired last year to lead the program.

Potomac does not do policy debate, and has no plans to unfortunately. Strong is the coach that told us policy was dying.

[Anonymous]

I know tons of former policy debaters who live in the D.C. area and I'm always surprised there aren't more policy HS teams. My kids are still little, so HS is many years off, but I would love for them to have the chance to debate if they want.

[Anonymous]

Go Deathridge!

[Anonymous]

http://www.wacfl.org

The largest Metro DC policy league is still going strong 60 years later.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Go Deathridge!

Are you referring to Scott Deatherage, the famous and beloved Northwestern debate coach.

http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2009/12/deatherage.

His speech(es) about debate are legend.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF48F244D4CF722CB


These were typically given to high school students attending a summer institute at Northwestern.

If your student is attending high school at GDS and wants to try policy debate, you might consider sending them to a summer debate institute the summer before 9th grade so that they can learn the basics of policy debate, and start to work on that year's topic under the guidance of college debaters. My DC had not debated before they began high school at GDS, so we sent them to a summer debate institute at the suggestion of a family we knew, and it helped greatly. I believe the Georgetown runs one locally, but there are policy institutes at Dartmouth, Michigan, Missouri, Oregon, Stanford, and Texas, among others. You can research them, or reach out to Jon for suggestions. But again, many GDS students start with absolutely no experience.

[Anonymous]

1. Policy Debate is in fact dying. I did it in college on a scholarship. My kids now do public forum.
2. Jon Sharp has a strong policy program at GDS and it is open to anyone. Yes they recruit but it is not closed.
3. I did a lot of research with college coaches and they indicated that the trend was in fact to public forum. The good news is if you do policy, you can be recruited for college. PF debaters don't get recruited as much for college. This is because colleges support policy formally whereas parliamentary debate, which PF feeds into, is student-run. Meaning, no influence on admissions. Several top colleges that do policy recruit Policy Debaters.