Photo: Pasesky and Lantz are ready as they leave the Theatre for their Saturday afternoon practice debate

 

Posted by: Alfred Snider

 

Well, everyday at WDI is probably debate day, but Saturday definitely is. Three debates are on the schedule before the students get Saturday evening free (but with supervision and activities).

 

At 9 AM there was a practice debate that featured specific arguments on the affirmative case being used along with a major disadvantage as well. After that debate the students switched sides and did it again before lunch.

 

After the morning debates faculty were heard to remark how much the students are improving from earlier on. More than that, they seem to be “getting it” due to concept reinforcement and repetition of the act of debating.

 

In the afternoon there was another debate scheduled, and this one with a full three hours allocated to it. This will be a full debate with full preparation time, and after the debate is over the students will receive a full critique and then deliver their rebuttals over again. Rebuttal repeats are one of the most powerful debate learning tools that exists.

 

This debate was also the first one in which students could use the new affirmative case about using the Citizen Corps to train citizen volunteers to deal with the possible outbreak of Avian Flu in the USA.

 

After today each student will have been in twelve debates. That is a lot in six days. Thus, it should come as no surprise that tomorrow will be BEACH DAY! With, of course, another practice debate in the evening.