Academic

College Debate Under Fire: Postmodernism And The Moon

By Dan Filler

People unfamiliar with high school and college debate tend to express surprise and disgust about the nature of this fun activity. This response isn't new.  This was true back in my high school days when spread debate was only beginning to rev up to its current speed.  (Little known fact: a certain law professor at Loyola LA was my debate coach during my sophomore year at Niles West High School.)  People would complain that this fast talk wasn't genuine debate (y'know, like the Presidential debates) since there wasn't time for true persuasion.  Mostly, though, they were just mad that you needed a trained ear to understand the words.  In those days, though, at least everyone was talking policy.

Now many debaters eschew policy, focusing on theory.  One year, while at Alabama, I populated my final exam with Judith Butler, Donna Harraway, Michel Foucault, and others.  (I was spending a lot of time with my friends across campus!)  Only one student appeared to notice the joke: a former debating star from UT Austin.  When he explained the source of his knowledge, I was duly impressed.  Who knew that you could leverage a surface understanding of Gender Trouble into shiny trophies? 

And now, it appears, debaters continue to push the envelope on the act of debate - still enraging people who see debate as something serious and important and true, rather than as an intellectual sport.  This lead the Chronicle of Higher Ed to report about the ultimate demise of this ancient activity: the display of ass by an angry coach.  Can we as a society, indeed as humanity writ large, ever come back from the brink?   

H/T: Chapin Cimino

Full post as published by The Faculty Lounge on October 01, 2008 (boomark / email).