Truth, Comparison, and Justification in LD Debate

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — At the start of the month, Adam Nelson — director of debate at the Harker School in California — published an article entitled “Towards a Comprehensive Theory of Lincoln-Douglas Debate.” That article generated some discussion here on VBD and elsewhere.
Today, Eric Palmer — director of debate at Mountain View-Los Altos […]

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LD and the Search for Truth

“Watching a few debates nationally and your TOC videos this year,” writes Ryan Davis, “it has perplexed me that even at the highest levels, debates about very specific questions of polictical theory can be strangely removed from contemporary discussions among political theorists about those very issues. While I think there are possibly strategic rationales for such choices, I think it may result at least in part from certain institutionalized features that may not be desirable.” Davis touches upon these very issues and more in a guest opinion piece here on VBD.

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RFD: Respect For Decision

Justin Hinojoza has always found himself disappointed in how some debaters conduct themselves at tournaments. “I can understand occasionally being frustrated with a decision that did not go your way,” he notes, “but no judge deserves to be assaulted for their decision.” In this guest opinion piece, he explains why.

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Cyndy Woodhouse on “Giving Back”

This week, and over the next several weeks, college and high school seniors across the country will be receiving their diplomas. Cyndy Woodhouse has a brief but eloquent plea for graduating students to consider giving their time back to the community that gave them so much. VBD welcomes you to read and comment.

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Neotraditionalism: A Paradigm for Adjudicating Rounds

Matt Johnston, who debated for Lexington until his graduation in 2003, has written a sixteen-point explanation of his judging paradigm - which he labels “neotraditionalist” - and is urging others to adopt this paradigm as well. “Neotraditionalism is a debate philosophy I feel a lot of people have on the tips of their tongues, he […]

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Do Not Cut HIV Education

“As a teacher of teenagers for thirty-five years,” notes Tim Averill, “I am well aware that abstinence-only education does a disservice to sexually active teenagers, by ignoring their reality. We need to continue to fund good-quality HIV education, that informs teenagers and adults about risk reduction.”

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Kritiks in Debate

Plain and simple: Justin Eckstein’s take on the K. (The first part)

While many people have heard of the K, not many people know the origin. Well, just for those base ball card debaters the first K ever, a Feminism K, was run in 1989 by Ryan Goodman a debater from UT. Also the word Kritik […]

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