We were standing in the library after the first round of the debate tournament and Pat, who works for the US Treasury and coaches the debate team of an international school in town on a voluntary basis, turned to Our Dear Friend Will and I and mused, "why are any of us here? We were all high school debaters." ODFW agreed, but I got into debate because I lied in a job interview about the depth of my experience in debate and my enthusiasm for getting involved in extra curricular activities. I got the job but then I had to figure out how to coach (and coordinate) a school's debating program. So, I turned to Tess, a real high school debating champion, learnt what I needed to know and found myself with a thousand dollar budget on my first day as a graduate teacher.
In Victoria, we were part of the DAV competition, which is perhaps the largest high school debating competition in the world. Hundreds of schools both state and private, thousands of kids, vying for debating supremacy across 4 levels. I took my team, the VUSC Debate Mighty Ducks, to 4th place (their best result ever) and fell in love with debate. At its best, basically, you have kids passionately arguing for (or against) solutions for the world, while thinking through the moral, political, economic and ethical considerations of their ideas. Since most debaters are nerdburgers, it generally doesn't devolve into megalomania but is instead warmly earnest in its intent, and savagely competitive: a sport for those with brains and no athleticism whatsoever.
Mongolia doesn't have anything close to the DAV. In fact, the national championships were hijacked by a certain school who didn't invite any other school, then declared themselves the National champions in an internal "competition." After a month of tentative planning with Pat, the administration at school declared that the school would be hosting a tournament and that my friend Levi and I would be organizing it. It would start in 10 days, there would be competitions for every grade, and, despite being the only school we had been working with at that point, Pat's school was not to be invited because they didn't use the same Cambridge curriculum as us. We didn't have any kids involved below grade 9 yet, as debate had often been placed on the shelf in favour of talent shows, dysentery pandemics and other unfortunate interruptions.
And, so, Levi and I went off and did the best we could (a truly Mongolian refrain). We pushed back the first debate by a week, invited 3 other schools including Pat's, established the format (based on DAV rules) with 3 levels, hastily put together junior and intermediate teams, put out the word for adjudicators and hoped for the best when Round 1 rolled around. For the most part, it went well with the standard of debate varying wildly from barely coherent juniors to intensely dramatic and confrontational seniors.
Since that first debate, we have had another 2 rounds (in one day) and are now preparing for playoffs. At our school, the kids are engaged and have worked exceedingly hard to raise their game for the pride of the school. We've found that the best way to organize it has been to listen to the administration and then just do what we want, which is usually the more logical approach. After Round 1, there were complaints that it was too chaotic to just put up schedules around the school and expect teams to find their way to the right classroom. Instead, we should have had a meeting with everyone to tell them where to go. The next time around, we put up schedules and ran it as before. As expected, things went even better this time.
For round 2, because of the need to conduct 2 debates in a day, we said we were going to offer pizza or a snack for the debaters (and the adjudicators, who are all expats in town with jobs and obligations who had volunteered their time for the sake of debate). We proposed a budget, waited a week, and then were turned down seemingly on a financial basis. I ordered and paid for the pizzas myself (a not unsubstantial cost), because we had promised them and they were plainly necessary for kids to have enough energy to debate for up to 2 hours after a full day of school. Needless to say, the pizzas were a hit and contributed a festive spirit to the day.
Unknown to anyone though, apparently it's school policy that there should be no outside food due to the dysentery pandemic ... which was caused by the school's own cafeteria months ago. This policy had never been circulated nor mentioned to any foreign teacher nor posted anywhere. It seems basic, but if no one knows the rules, how are we supposed to follow them. Of course, despite the general success of the tournament so far, no thanks have been forthcoming from most figures in administration (except notably our dean of foreign teachers) for the dozens of extra hours we have put into it.
Pat was right: we are all high school debaters, if in spirit only.
