[eDebate] Start your own league......

[debate at ou.edu]

Take the Ball and Go Home…

Here is my perspective on debate right now.  There is an ideological battle between those who see debate from a critical 
perspective and those who see it from a games perspective.  (not absolute by any means) As those who want one type of 
debate attempt to frame topics that promote debate in their way, others who have been involved in the community for many 
years disagree with this move.  We are not going to start our own league.  Not Fullerton, not Louisville not Oklahoma or the 
many other schools who have chosen to debate differently.  The desire to decrease affirmative flexibility along with creativity 
for fear of debating the “unknown” has been combined with an increase in technological methods that increase coaches’ 
participation in the game.  The more predictable, the more the coach can be involved.    The less predictable, uh oh, the more 
the debates are up to the debaters.  The more coaches you have, well guess what, the more predictable a team would want the 
topic.  When people say the topic should be framed X way, it is only a perspective and can be taken as nothing more.  
Unfortunately one perspective is dominating the topic making process.  Critical minds are not going to lay down and surrender, 
they will only find ways to explode from within the topic, and if that means ignoring it for educational purposes, then that is a 
strategic and sometimes value-laiden choice.  These are debates that are happening on edebate and in competitive debates 
themselves.

Vote for the topic with less words for practical purposes.  Ever figure out which one that would be?

Peace,

Massey


Fact: As the topics have narrowed to have more predictable affirmatives, there has been a increasing trend for more schools to 
switch to parli or ended debate at their school.