Comments on: Resolved: Another Debate Documentary

By: Barbara Wood

Barbara Wood — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 00:33:10 +0000

Thank you for your comments. As a high school debater in the late 1950′s, when I watched the show, I was shocked at what I saw. Now I know the “speed debating style” is not the norm, thank God. One of the most valuable activities of my high school years was learning to research both sides of an issue and to be ready to defend either one. Debate also taught me to think critically, a skill not taught to nor evident in most high school students today. My daughter, who teaches history to high school students, tries to teach this skill by making her students defend the side of an issue with which they do not agree. She has found this to be very enlightening to her students and many have come back while in College to tell her ” thank you for teaching me to think critically”. Perhaps the media needs to take some lessons as well!

By: John Tredway

John Tredway — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 23:31:25 +0000

The documentary just gives one side of the debate process and it involves a tiny segment of the speech and debate community; even in the area of policy debate. At the national level, we have Lincoln Douglas debate in which highly polished speaking skills over propositions of value are debated. The delivery style is such that any public speaker would be proud of these kids. A team event called Public Forum debate is another style used to present well reasoned and persuasively delivered arguments.
Even in policy debate, most areas of the country reject the counterintuitive and mindless spewing of arguments sometimes practiced by elite schools in the country.
While it was admirable for the Long Beach team to take on this games playing style of debate, they too engaged in the game and the script writers of this piece tried to make it appear that all high school debating is along this model.
There are almost 80,000 U.S. high school students competing in speech and debate on an annual basis. At best, perhaps 3,000 of these practice this style of debating. Even at the National Forensic League’s national tournament, a really small and usually not winning percentage clear to the elimination rounds for this tournament.
The authors make a valuable contribution. None of these practices as shown in the documentary can be defended. The problem though is that high school speech and debate is a much larger process and this should have been an editorial commentary included in this piece.

By: Ray

Ray — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 20:07:14 +0000

Resolved is an outstanding piece of work within the dynamic of Americana, ie; politics, racism, classism, school systems ext…Richard and Lewis were phenomenal along with the Long Beach Jordan staff. Keep this kind of “real” work going…

By: klein3351f

klein3351f — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 23:34:36 +0000

Just finished watching the documentary and here are my opinions.

I had no idea that debating was simply nothing but reading really fast from a page and not even thinking about what you’re saying. THAT SHOULDN’T BE DEFINED AS DEBATING!

As for the Long Beach team, they were changing the rules of the game in the midst of it, which you can’t expect to succeed at. Imagine if, all of a sudden, in the middle of a basketball game, a player decided to pick up the ball and run with it like in football, then proceed to grab a ladder and climb up to the hoop to deposit the ball. It wouldn’t be legal, would it? Well, that’s what the Long Beach team did.

Anyway, interesting movie. I now know that there is no such thing as debating in this country anymore. It is very sad.

By: Jim Harris

Jim Harris — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:45:12 +0000

The movie makes its TV premeire on HBO tonight.

A recent review of the film in the URL.

By: “Resolved” Movie Trailer

“Resolved” Movie Trailer — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 20:26:23 +0000

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