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Real World Debate, Part 1: Don’t Be Nerdly

A lot of people talk about the crossover benefits of debate. They claim that hard work and success in debate translate to the real world: if you do well enough at debate, you’ll get into a good college, be a good student, and get a good job–not to mention...

Dictionaries and How Definitions Work

“A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged; it is the skin of a living thought and may vary greatly in color and content according to the circumstances and the time in which it is used.” – Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes cited by Jennifer R....
1 Hour Teaching Debate to Novices

1 Hour Teaching Debate to Novices

I was asked to teach 14 high school students at a homeschool co-op about 30 minutes south of me. They aren’t really competing, but just taking a class, are halfway through the Christy Shipe book and have read all the Ethos 1ACs (presumably–this has been...

Read the book!

I remember immigration year. At about this point in the season, one of our Ethos authors told me we needed to research a particular item for an update. I had to laugh and ask him if he had actually read his copy of Ethos. The very information he was seeking was right...
Debate Coaching Plans at Vector

Debate Coaching Plans at Vector

I get asked what we’re doing in club by other coaches quite a bit. So I thought I’d post the plan from now until January. Do realize that a lot of crazy tangents can happen. IOW, this is the “plan”. It was crafted over coffee (and loud strange...