In which we watch it all from way in the back of the cheap seats

I admit to watching TOC happen from afar. I like to root for the local favorites, for one thing. Even if I think LD has gone to hell in a hand basket, plenty of people don’t, and I still care about it, although truth to tell, I care more about the people and schools I know than any particular activity. I want my friends to do well, as I’m sure you want your friends to do well. I would prefer that the whole thing be a positive experience, for all the ills it may have (or may not have) inflicted on the activities overall. That as a culture many of us have gone way overboard in our expectations of what high school is, and what college is, and turned education into a competition for perceived bests rather than a search for knowledge, isn’t TOC’s fault. Or debate’s fault, for that matter. Debate, seen as a tool for upping the level of one’s college admittances, has become something that people see as transcending things like having a school debate team or needing to be a part of a student body representing said body out in the world. It doesn’t matter to some what high school they’re from: they’re independent. And independence is good in many things, but probably not this one. This definition of indepence is out for one’s self, period. Of course, TOC bans independent entries, and at least in the past has been slammed for doing so. I’ve been slammed for doing so at tournaments I run. I can live with that.

Whoever wrote those articles that claimed that debaters did better getting into colleges than non-debaters should be hung by the thumbs over the burning embers of last decade’s Derrida cases.

Meanwhile, I received an invitation email from one of our local schools throwing a hoedown at the end of May. It all seems to be in aid of good causes, but honestly, the end of May is pretty decidedly past the expiration date of interest in debate around here. I don’t wish them ill but I’m not sanguine that they’ll be able to pull it off. September, when there’s still some free weekends if you don’t mind dodging the Jewish holiday speed traps, is probably a much better bet for any sort of new varsity tournament. Or have it simultaneous with the first-timers’ events in October, when it doesn’t matter that the weekend is “taken.” Different universes, for the most part. Oh, well. Nobody asked for my opinion. Which doesn’t stop me from offering it, but there you are.