[eDebate] an actual contribution to the t debates....

[Pacedebate at aol.com]

In a message dated 6/9/2007 7:23:56 P.M. Central Daylight Time,  
andy.edebate at gmail.com writes:

1. Thats  not feasible, nor beneficial to the activity or the shared exchane 
of  ideas...insulating both sides of the divide from one another weakens the  
argumentative gene pool.


I disagree with this.
There is not inherently a benefit to an exchange of ideas and it certainly  
isn't net advantageous given other alternatives.
To be honest, when we spend thousands of dollars to attend a tournament to  
get somewhere between six and twelve debates and one of our debates when we are 
 supposed to be negative is against a team that chooses not to affirm the  
topic then basically it's a waste of at least 1/12th of the resources  expended.
The primary values of policy debate as I teach it are research, critical  
thinking, and in depth public policy analysis. Andy's alternatives don't  fully 
solve these advantages. Which brings us to his analogy....
 

>i dont think the lacrosse teams think that you get to use the baseball  

field only for baseball, and that in the >same forum multiple sports can go  on in 
the same setting, inevitably the schools baseball field because it >is  the 
best forum for playing sports is goig to be a contested space, the baseball  
players will argue its a >baseball field, and the lacross players will argue  
its a field,
 
Why is attending a tournament that explicity lists a topic the best forum  
for what you/your teams want to debate about? 
It seems to me people that want to debate about genocide in darfur would be  
much better off to host their own tournament and/or host public debates on  
campus.
For my teams it's an exceptionally good forum for the things I'm trying to  
teach IF all the teams show up plan to debate the same topic. It's a  
substantially diminished forum when a bunch of teams show up who don't plan to  debate 
the topic.
 
 
T



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