Session 5: Debate Etiquette

28 Sep 2019 — By Mr. Joshua Puckett — GPA Center

A. KEY NOTES:

I. Some words you ought to know…

• Argument — Fight for Ego
• Debate — Fight for Victory
• Dialectic — Fight for Truth

II. Grammar, logic, and rhetoric

(Grammar, logic, and rhetoric was established in ancient Greece)

III. Debate:

• THBT schools should not be allowed to track students by academic level.

Exam Structure — Team Debate:

• 10 Minutes to prepare
• 3 Speakers Per Team
• Each Team Member speaks for 3 minutes
• Required 2 sources
• 60 seconds between teams

IV. Thing to remember

• Say hello
• Say your name, your position, and your side
• Greet the Judges, Opponents, and Teammates
• Restate the motion
• Define the motion
• Make your points
• Rebut their points

V. Link turn and impact turn

VI. Watch movie — The Matrix

• Why do we watch this movie?
• The Matrix “largely interprets Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. Imagine a cave. Inside are people who were born and have spent their entire lives there, chained into a fixed position, only able to see the wall in front of them. As far as they know, this is the entire world.” The Wachowskis (Writer and Producer of “The Matrix”) ask the same question Plato (a Greek philosopher) does: “How do we know what our reality really is?”. That’s how they saw the world.
• It is the figurative allegory story, so the teacher would like to see how students contend with these ideas. Then, the teacher can use things like this world that we don’t see or understand, the concept of Free Will and the concept of fate to the serious debates in class.

B. HOMEWORK:

No homework today.