High School Debate

Tuesday of this week featured our second annual FYOS debate tournament pitting the boys debate team from the CYHSB against the the girls debate team from the GMSG.  Both teams have been preparing all year for this tournament through extensive research, planning, and practice debates amongst themselves.

The debate format we use is known as Policy Debate or Cross-Examination debate.  What separates CX Debate from the other popular form of high school debate known as Lincoln-Douglas Debate, is that in LD Debate, the debaters recieve a new topic every month whereas in CX debate there is one topic for the year debated by all CX high school debaters throughout the country.  This year's topic, or resolved as it is known, was "That the United States Federal Government should substantially reduce its miliatry and / or police presence in one or more of the following countries:  Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Turkey, South Korea, or Japan."  As you can imagine, recent events in both Japan and the Middle East made the topic incredibly relevant and required that our debaters stay on top of the news at all times.

Tuesday's tournament featured three rounds of three debates each, followed by a final round in which the highest scoring boys team faced off against the highest scoring girls team in front of both schools as well as parents who wanted to attend.  All of the debates were judged by adults with knowledge of the field, including several who are active or retired US millitary.

As any of the judges will attest, our kids - both boys and girls - were phenomenal.  They demonstrated deep knowledge of the subject area, strong rhetorical skills, and the ability to think critically on their feet.  At the end of the day, though, this year's bragging rights belong to the GMSG.  With a record of 8-2, they captured all three of the top team awards and two of the three speaker awards. 

The boys, though, are hungry to get even. And, with all eight members of their team poised to return again next year, they are sure to give the girls a run for their money.

Click here for all of the pictures and video clips from the event.