Presidential debate not high-school worthy
On Sept. 29, formal debaters the world over sat with their heads in their hands.
In what feels like two lifetimes ago, Pres. Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden met in Cleveland for what was emphatically not the LincolnDouglas debates, considered by many to be the gold standard of formal debate.
Those debates were so popular they were printed in book form later, when the men ran against each other again, this time for the presidency.
That was then. These days, only the political naive watch presidential debates to learn about policy. Studies show that debates generally don’t change minds. Instead, they push us further into our already-chosen corners.
But we continue to call them debates.
Everett Rutan, of the Connecticut Debate Association, debated years ago when he was a student at Xavier High School. He’s been working with student debaters for more than 20 years, during which time he’s watched interest in formal debate wax and wane – in part, he says, because school administrators don’t always see the benefits that come from research and public speaking.
“If the football coach leaves, every school goes right out and hires another,” said Rutan. Not so with a debate coach, which is too bad. We could all benefit if politicians took debate training. Rutan usually doesn’t watch presidential debates because he finds them painful, but he watched the September one and found it…lacking.
“If that had been a high school debate, basically the judge would have ended the round,” said
Rutan. “It was an embarrassment.”
Wednesday’s vice presidential debate was a little calmer, but every bit as rule-busting, as far as staying within one’s time slot. That simply would not be allowed, had it been a real debate.
When schools went online last spring, the state’s debates did, as well, said Ron Rapice, who founded and directs the Bridgeport Public Schools Debate League. He started the program in 2014 and then watched it take off as an army of well-spoken sixth- through eighth-graders stepped up to take research and presentation every bit as seriously as do student athletes their sports. They prep. They train. They fly out of the blocks when the starting gun goes off.
In Rapice’s first year, the program attracted 60 kids. The students learned that formal debate
– parliamentary debate, one of several types – is nothing like what they’ve seen on television. They learned that debate is not about conflict resolution, said Rapice, but about making a solid argument and thinking on your feet. They learned how hard it is to speak knowledgeably about a subject for 3 to 7 minutes. They studied the rubric for judging, which includes tips for style, and mention “MLK or Obama or Jesus” as top debaters.
Students quickly get hooked, said Rapice. The few students who drop out do so because they either have trouble getting a ride, or sports and practices cut into debate time. He’s even had some fourth-graders – 9-year olds! – dressing up and debating.
Every newcomer enters their first debate as if they are going off to a horrible punishment, but by the third round, they’re
pumping their fists, Rapice said
Last year, Janelle Trujillo, a High Horizons Magnet School seventh-grader who likes match and science, and who plans to be a doctor, signed up for debate because that’s what you do in school, you try new things. Rapice said Trujillo, then a sixthgrader, and her partner debated a team that had done well all year, and was favored to win.
As a novice, Trujillo would have been commended had she simply held her own, but she owned the debate, said Rapice. Her team won, and she won best speaker – despite, she says, a significant case of the nerves.
“I love debating, honestly,” she said. “It’s so cool because you get to speak your mind about a topic and even if you don’t agree with the side you’re arguing, you get to see a perspective and the point of view on that side.”
She particularly likes debating about the environment. It’s not a topic with which she is familiar, but she’s learning.
Though he has been diagnosed with the coronavirus, Trump originally said he intended to debate again on Thursday, in what was scheduled to be a town hall. The Commission on Presidential Debates announced this week the debates would be virtual. The Biden campaign swiftly agreed, but Trump said he won’t participate, saying “I am not going to waste my time on a virtual debate.”
Sigh. Chaos is the name of the game. As of now, Biden will participate alone in a town hall out of Philadelphia. If someone talks Trump into participating, will we get substance? Any kind of governance? A moderator with a whip? Let’s not hold our breath.