Photo: Generic bowling picture

 

Posted by: Alfred Snider

 

Sunday was beach day. The students were excited and after a week of intensive academic work, the idea of swimming and frolicking on the beach in the sun was an inviting one.

 

Unfortunately Sunday began with rain all morning. Thick black clouds were rolling in off the lake. The weather forecast indicated that it would clear in the afternoon, but perhaps not until 3 PM or 4 PM.  We started worrying about the fate of our beach trip and began investigating other plans. The students had been working hard, and they needed to do something physical that had nothing to do with debate and is also off-campus.

 

Ben & Jerry’s ice cream factory tour in Waterbury? Nope, reservations muct be made on a weekday. Vermont Teddy Bear Company factory tour? Nope, only lasts 30 minutes. Movie? Nope, the ones playing at the right hour were terrible (2 out of 5 stars) and besides, the students saw a movie on Saturday night in the campus theatre. Go to the Fleming Museum? While it was open, it was hardly something to excite them and it is on-campus.

 

Finally we decided to send them bowling. We reserved a bunch of lanes nearby and when the bus showed up at 1:15 PM we took them to Yankee Lanes in Colchester for a few hours of bowling. The report was that the students had a lot of fun and that there was a lot of laughing, good-natured competitiveness, and groups of newly formed friends were able to bowl together. When questioned students would say they scored well but were often less than candid about their exact score. As well, it isn’t that “cool” to be excited about bowling, but they seemed to really enjoy it.

 

We were determined to have a recreational afternoon, and we succeeded. Students slept in while some went to church on campus Sunday morning, then bowled after lunch, came home in time for dinner.

 

And in the evening they had a full two hour debate. That’s the way it is here at the World Debate Institute.