The cases discussed in this unit relate to the rights of students. Any of these would be excellent as topics for debate. Clearly, they are all controversial and of interest to students. The remainder of the unit will give basic rules and speaker responsibilities for debate. A complete workshop is held each Fall for middle school teachers and coaches interested in further information on debating as well as the state middle school debate tournament. Much of the information which follows comes from material provided by the state at that workshop. Those interested in the tournament are encouraged to contact Denise W. Merrill at the beginning of the school year in Hartford at (203) 566-5871 for a schedule of events.
Also, a reminder that videotapes of the state championship debates for 1987 and 1988 are available at the Yale New Haven Teachers Institute’s office. Examining these videotapes provides an excellent teaching tool. The tapes should be stopped frequently and the strengths and weaknesses of each speaker discussed. The speaker responsibilities described in this section of the unit will become clearer when combined with the videotapes of these two exciting championship debates. The 1988 censorship topic is referred to briefly while discussing speaker responsibilities.
The first thing necessary in a debate is a resolution, or topic to be argued. The resolution, or proposition, must be in the form of a statement. It must also go against the way things are now, the status quo. The 1988 topic for middle schools was the following:
Resolved: That Student Publications should be protected by the First Amendment.
When this issue was chosen in September as the 1987-88 topic, the
Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier
case discussed earlier had not yet been decided. In January of 1988, however, while debates were in progress, the Supreme Court did rule in favor of the school board in allowing censorship of school newspapers. This decision is not, however, the only related case and as shown in the cases discussed in this unit, there are always two sides to any argument.
Once the resolution is selected, two teams are chosen. One team argues for the resolution. This is the affirmative team. They are against the status quo which is the way things are now. The second team is the negative team. Their job is to uphold the status quo and show that things are fine the way they are now.
For the state competition, each team is comprised of two members. A minimum of four students or two teams, from each school is required. The number of team members, if larger than four, must increase in multiples of four to either eight or twelve. This enables proper pairings between schools. Students debate two times during each round. In one round they argue the affirmative and in the other they assume the negative position. They must therefore prepare both sides of the question.
Once it is determined which team will argue each position, the debate begins. Each speaker has certain responsibilities and must adhere to specific guidelines, speaking order, and time limits.
The Connecticut Middle School Debate Tournament follows the Oregon style debate format referring to its place of origin. This format has also been chosen recently by the American Forensic Association’s national debate tournament to replace the Oxford or Standard debate format. The major difference is that the Oregon style debate format uses principles of cross-examination while the Standard format does not include cross-examination.
The time limits for each speaker are longer at the high school level but the format and major responsibilities of each speaker are the same. The middle school and high school time limits for each speaker under the Oregon format are shown on the following page. The high school time limits are shown in parentheses. Later in this section, the responsibilities of each speaker will be described.