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

Forum Index » Private & Independent Schools

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

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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.  [/quote]

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

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics