In which Whitman wonders

I was away at WDW for a week, the last blast of vacation for me before the season starts in earnest. Byram Hills was just a practice run. We’re about to shoot off the big guns.

This weekend is Monticello, their Kaiser tournament. Once again I bemoan the lack of support for this small but important event. Where, exactly, are the sophomores of life getting good experience the beginning of the year? For that matter, where are they getting any experience at all? I felt the same way about Byram, although here the mix of events is slightly different. Regional debate is, in my estimation, the most important sort of debate. It’s available and accessible to the most people, theoretically bringing the most debate to the community. And as often as not, the community, intent apparently only on the Big Time, seems to forget that the Big Time is only a part of it (and an expensive part at that) for a select few. For that matter, how will that select few ever get good without a lot of rounds under their belt?

Is a puzzlement. And I’ve been down this road before. No one, apparently, gives a flying fig.

JV has set up the Scarsdale tournament taking the paradigm of upperclass judging that he’s had for years in LD and applying it for the first time to PF. Not everyone takes advantage of this opportunity to judge, which I think is a shame. Seeing a round from the other side of the room is a great learning opportunity in aid of improving one’s one skills. Plus, what the hell else are you going to do every hour out of two? I gather the hyper-competitive sorts think this will ruin their game somehow, although in my experience, it never has. After all, we do monitor things in tab, so no one is debating and judging every single round. But then again, as with the whole regional thing, some schools are more interested in winning TOC bids than learning anything.

Is a puzzlement. And I’ve been down this road before. No one, apparently, gives a flying fig.

I repeat myself? Very well then, I repeat myself. I am not that large, and hardly contain any multitudes at all.