Dragon Debate Season Starts with Wins, Including an "Iron Man" Victory!
As autumn leaves fall to the ground, so does the gavel to the desk when Debate season kicks off…and this year, it came earlier than usual! Once again, to recap all of the exciting Debate news, we have guest writer and Debate Coach extraordinaire Mr. Glasser:
The debate team competed at its first tournament of the year this past weekend. Normally, we wait until late October or early November to begin the competition season, however, our students could not help but get started!
We travelled to PS 161 in Harlem, where a small number of our returning debaters competed in the advanced parliamentary division. About 130 students in all attended the season opening event. They tackled the topics:
This house would grant prisoners the right to vote.
This house believes video games do more harm than good.
This house believes single gender classrooms are better than co-ed classrooms.
At the end of the day, Liam S. emerged as the top overall speaker at the tournament, taking home the coveted speaker's gavel! Especially noteworthy is that he achieved this as an “Iron Man” competitor, meaning he competed alone rather than on a normal team of three.
Additionally, the team of Sasha W., Sana M., and Alden N. went undefeated at the tournament with Alden and Sana also receiving speaking awards. The team of Alex V., Caitlin M., and Brynn M. achieved a winning record, and all achieved speaker awards as well.
Our next event is a beginners’ workshop on October 13, followed by a November 3 tournament hosted here at Speyer!