Columbia City High School Debate Analysis

Children have a reputation for being innocent and naive. This is mainly because their experiences with the world are few and sheltered. As the children grow up they are exposed to more and more of the unfiltered world. Some parents do everything they can to keep their children from seeing that world. That is because as they see more of the world they become less innocent. Normally adults are the only ones who have truly lost their innocence. Unfortunately, there are exceptions, as there are to every rule, and they are not good. Children who have lost their innocence have had horrible things happen. Elie Wiesel writes in the novella Night how he lost his innocence. Elie has suffered a loss of innocence because he is desensitized, he has lost

Amid the 1930's it was a defining moment for African Americans lives since they needed to change their life. In the film The Great Debaters by Denzel Washington shows the debaters overcame racism in the debating community. The debaters used their experiences as the minority group to create an emotional attachment with the audience. The team was not a respected team by the white community but rather the team constantly pushed towards to reach their goals. Regardless of being the minority group, the team uses credibility and emotion to win their debate competitions.

This film focuses on being a confident and decisive person in life, through passionate and informed topics. Public speaking is the process of speaking to a group of people in a structured, deliberate manner intended to inform, influence, or entertain the listeners.¹ After watching this film it does strike a cord of wanting to be able to reach out to others and share my own opinions in a strong, confident manner. To inspire others on something I may be passionate about in life, to share a different aspect of life that others have not lived. I can't say exactly how much this film has impacted my views on public speaking although the film itself

The movie, The Great Debaters, takes place in the 1930s and explores the struggles of three students from Wiley College’s debate team. The first character introduced is the youngest student from the team, 14 year old, James Farmer Jr. He is an ambitious young man who strives to live up to his father’s expectations. James struggles with fear throughout the movie. He is sheltered and does not understand the severity of the racial conflict of the time. This trait is evident in the film in two key scenes. The first is when his family is out for a drive and his father accidently hits a white man’s pig. James’s father is very cautious during this interaction and James witnesses the incident from the car. This interaction has a major impact on James and gives him a greater understanding of the racial conflict. The second incident occurs when James is unsuccessful in his first debate. When given other opportunities to debate, he questions himself and fears failure. This fear plays a role in the debate team’s future competitions.

Conflict is inevitable in any personal relationship or among members of any group. While we encounter many types of conflict in our lifetime, we often look for ways to avoid conflict. So, why do we run away from dealing with our conflict? It is often because many of us fear the conflict will escalate into a situation we will not be able to sustain. “As conflicts escalate, they go through certain incremental transformations. Although these transformations occur separately on each side, they affect the conflict as a whole because they are usually mirrored by the other side. As a result of these transformations, the conflict is intensified in ways that are sometimes exceedingly difficult to undo” (Pruitt, and Kim 89). We

Throughout high school, I harbored a deep admiration for debate and dreamed of joining the team. Its quintessence of ideals in rational argument, tolerance for conflicting points of view, and rigorous self-examination appealed strongly to me. Yet simple things, like pronouncing a word wrong or having an accent, were enough to hold me back. Thus, I passed through my high school years unnoticed.

As an incoming freshman at the University of Texas at Arlington I can say I have been in several organizations that have challenged my social skills. However, they were nothing compared to the discourse community I was a member of. It will be proven time and time again that I indeed was not only a member but also a valuable asset to this community. Let us ponder for a moment on what a discourse community actually is. It consists of many components involving but not limited to ethos, pathos, and logos. All three of which I possess and have mastered in my arts. You must realize what the set boundaries are for it to be included as such. Must sports be included even though it is more physical than conversely active? What about Student Government? Yes, we had conversations and planned events at meetings but our relationship with each other was only to a certain extent. Although my participation in sports and student government contributed to my When I think of a discourse community, automatically I associate it with the experience in my high school band. Our close knit community very well made me the person I am today.

Many families encounter the worst of sports related injuries, such as being paralyzed or even death upon playing. The NCHSAA should be more cautious upon high school athletics and make it a safer environment towards all contenders within the divisions. It is not the NCHSAA fault upon injuries, but they can make the biggest improvement upon sports to try and prevent many risky injuries. Kids will go through the pain of an injury, not to only sit and get ready to play again, but to learn an important lesson.

The Quinnipiac University poll was done during early September to test the waters before the first presidential debate between Clinton and Trump. The sample size was roughly 960, supposedly voters from across the nation with a margin of error of +- 3.2 which isn’t horrible. The numbers look fine and because it was a nationwide poll, the possibility of getting a fair and accurate cross section of views is fairly high, that being said there are a few issues with this poll that cause me to be concerned with the accuracy of this poll for many reasons.

Imagine a student-athlete gets accepted to Greenville University with a 3.5 grade point average and 30 on the ACT. The student is planning on playing soccer and has worked incredibly hard in the classroom and on the field to make this dream happen. However, the school can only offer 5,000 dollars per year in scholarships because they must offer the same 5,000 dollars to the student athlete who got a 2.0 grade point average and 16 ACT. Does this sound fair? Fair or not, this is the definition of equality. Greenville University operates on the idea of equity. Greenville University is focused on making it possible for every student to attend the university, no matter their grades, ethnicity, parent’s income or any other obstacle that may arise.

As senior year approached, I had made the decision to tryout for Harlingen High School’s cheerleading squad. Being placed on a team of thirty-two girls, it was surely unavoidable to become caught up in disagreements. For instance, in June of 2015, our squad traveled to Austin, TX to attend UCA (Universal Cheerleaders Association) cheer camp. At camp, the five seniors on our team each competed for UCA All-American, an award given to select individuals through a tryout process. Later, during camp, the cheerleaders who happened to make All-American were announced. It was soon discovered that each five seniors had received this award. I assumed everyone would be full of joy. However, to my amazement, the atmosphere appeared much different.

The Student Government Association’s Public Affairs Committee hosted the friendly debate in Semesters where students were invited to watch, support, and ask questions.

Despite the high approval ratings of the president, nearly two hundred high school students participated in a rally organized by St. Scholastica's College to express their opposition against the Duterte administration last Tuesday, days before the president's State of the Nation's Address.

I was recently informed that Maranatha Christian Academy was looking into starting a debate team. The Odette School of Business runs a semi-annual High School debate called the Richard Peddie Debate Tournament. If you have any questions about debate in general or the tournament I would be happy to help you out. We also have two tournament directors that would be willing to run a tutorial with your debate team.

One of my fondest recollections of my highschool years can be summarized with my little wooden mallet. Earned in Modesto in early April of 2015, the little wooden mallet was an award from a Policy Debate tournament for being the 4th best speaker of all 122 competitors. Yet despite its relatively recent introduction into my story, it holds tremendous value to me, as earning it was a long and oftentimes tumultuous road. When I was first introduced to Policy Debate, I fell head over heels in love with the competition, the research, the practice, yet I always felt like a little fish in a big pond. Whenever I watched other competitors, specifically the high tier of the league, never once did any idea that i could compete with them well cross my