Another way to switch from LD to PF is to throw a fat guy in front of the trolley

I’m going in deep and revamping everything.

Once upon a time I had a pretty decent curriculum for weekly LD meetings. I started with some key concepts like rights and morality, then went on to the structure of rounds, and the parts of an argument, etc., etc. Which was all swell and good when we were an LD team, but if we’re going to mostly be a PF team in the future, something’s got to give.

So, I’m rethinking everything, and planning everything out in my great book of debate life, AKA the Cur. Everything has to be looked at. Even my remarks on parents’ night are no longer entirely accurate. But the first big issue that arises, to which I have no particular answer, is when to switch the average novice from LD to PF. I still like the idea of starting people in LD. There’s no partner issues to worry about, for one thing, and an argument is an argument. Plus, early rounds have little to do with debate per se and much more to do with things like showing up and thinking on your feet and writing cases and public speaking. (Yes, novices in LD do engage in public speaking, although nowadays we quickly move them away from anything so unrewarding as speaking well.)

Because we run the Modest Novice topic from September through November, I can get three solid months taken care of without thinking about it. But what happens in December? I’ve been thinking that, since the team as a whole will hear the December PF topic on Nov 1, and we’ll quickly start brainstorming on it (provided I actually have repeat offenders next year), starting the noobs in PF in December makes some sense for that reason alone. Unfortunately, there are more novice LD opportunities after the turn of the year than there are novice PF ops. There’s no question that the debate community has yet to embrace Novice PF in this region, despite the popularity of PF overall. Old habits die hard, I guess.

Of course, the switch time will never be set as hard and fast. Some folks may never want to switch, and I’m certainly not going to force them. And maybe I’m deluding myself that I’ll have enough novices to create even a single PF team, considering how tiny the Huddian Navy is at the moment.

Oh, well. Thoughts to ponder as a plough the waters of the Cur.