First Diversity Recruitment and
Retention in Debate Ideafest
Edited
by Gordon R. Mitchell
University
of Pittsburgh
Published
by Office of the Dean
University
of Pittsburgh
Ideafest
convened at
Emory
University
Atlanta,
GA
June
10-11, 1997
Urban
Debate League Panel
Edward Lee, Betty
Maddox, Larry Moss, Shanara Reid,
Krsna Tibbs, Melissa
Wade, George Ziegelmueller
Audience
question: How
did you engage the students when you were starting with little or no debate
tradition?
Larry
Moss:
To attract students, we had to play a little bit outside the rules. Most images are that debaters are
nerds. That obviously can't
happen, so we worked on developing a certain style, a kind of swagger, to make
the students comfortable with what they were doing, to create an image that was
sensitive to where they were. It's
a difficult task; at this age, evolving adolescents are coming into
man/womanhood. We took an
aggressive stance, saying that we were going to change the nature of debate in
Georgia. We're having to develop
new strategies now, for example to try to bring more women into the
activity. One thing that was
effective in the beginning was that if the debaters were saying that they were
"bad," I would tell them to put up by going out to compete against white
schools, then come back. All the
new kids coming in must read about the history of the team. These [first-generation debaters such
as Eric, Rasheed and Krsna] had swagger.
They made novices practice walking into the assembly. We would all come into the assembly
together and sit down at the very front.
This was done self-consciously to educate judges who thought that
perhaps we were not ready to debate.
We had to take a lot of losses early on, but we were debating at a
certain level to educate the community.
Judges would vote against us on the ballot, but driving home, they would
think, "These guys were good."
We didn't allow race to affect what we thought about the decisions,
although it was always there in front of us. At one tournament in Alabama, in the coaches' lounge, they
kept insisting that I was the bus driver.
They said, "Hey, where did you park the bus?" The number one thing is to challenge
the kids, to ask them to put it on the table.
Shanara
Reid: Larry
Moss recruited at middle schools, and he came to my magnet school. I started shy and had no
self-esteem. Debate changed me; it
made me very aggressive, cocky, and conceited because of my confidence. I got a 3.4 GPA with 1070 SATs and was
accepted at 23 schools. Debate
gave me a side road out.
Edward
Lee: I
appreciate debate as pedagogy. It
has motivated my pursuit of knowledge and critical thinking. Most of what I know has been learned
through debate; it's my main educational tool. I'm now pursuing this at the University of Alabama.
Betty
Maddox: Edward
was in my speech class, and I saw something (a potential) in him which led me
to believe that he would benefit from this activity. He is really modest as he speaks about his success. His junior and senior years in high
school were successful ones in debate (breaking in at least five or six
tournaments). With Carrie Crenshaw
he really blossomed. It is real
important for debaters to recognize that they have skills that are just as
sharp (or could be as sharp) as anyone else of other racial, gender or economic
characteristics thought to be more advantageous in an effort to succeed. It is also important that they develop
a sense of discipline. Different
from Larry, we developed this by insisting that the men wear ties. This, too, increased their sense of
pride in their participation (as African-Americans) in debate. They already had enough reason to be
proud but many of them did not know it yet. And some of them, skeptical at first, found that they did
indeed have the skills and potential for success in competition with other
students from private schools and the predominantly white arena (often male) in
this intellectual activity called debate.
At Harper, we started with a budget of $700.00 our first year. After that year, I submitted our
successful record to the coordinator of the debate program, Dr. Regina Johnson,
and asked how much we could request for the coming year. She was impressed and suggested that I
go for whatever I thought we would need.
So, for the coming year we requested about six times as much as we had
requested for our first active year.
With each year thereafter, participation and winning performances
increased. The skills further
developed through debate were noticed by teachers and other students in the
classroom.
It is very important
that we find ways to get principals, board members, and others in influential
positions in our school communities to see a tournament and talk with parents
and debaters. At our second annual
forensic banquet, a board member who attended listened to the testimonials of
the debaters and their parents.
She was very impressed and was moved to promise more support to the
activity. The most moving
testimonials came from the students themselves. One middle school student said, "I thank god for my
coach!" He said this as his
pounding gesture demonstrated his sincerity. I think he might have thought himself to be in a round
persuading a judge to his point of view.
Larry
Moss: I
was sad when Betty stopped coaching.
There was competition, but we were both fighting the same thing. The one thing I would emphasize would
be the importance of getting debaters to a tournament.
Krsna
Tibbs: I
started with in-house debates, and won them all; then I was ready for the big
time. We went to the Mackintosh
tournament, and after the tournament, we all made a commitment to work
hard. We beat a guy with a debate
scholarship using debate handbooks!
We won our district and finished in the top 10 all-state. I am currently a business major, and
all things that I do ... conflict resolution, researching evidence ... they are
all due to debate.
George
Ziegelmueller: I
want to back up a step. In
Detroit, I didn't find teachers with the confidence or commitment that we're
seeing here. I didn't find a
school district with the same confidence in debate. A perception has built up over many years that debate is bad
because it is competitive. I
fought many years to counter these impressions, through teacher seminars
conducted for eight weeks. I saw
many of the usual fears: these teachers did not know anything about debate,
English or History was their primary field. I said "all teaching is communicative," let's work
from there. We didn't want
tournament travel right off; instead we started with an in-house league. It worked well, but there were competitive
suspicions. There was no money to
travel to weekend tournaments.
That is a nice thing about Soros, [providing money for new teams to
travel]. Another problem is magnet
schools. Local programs have been
discouraged because the most talented kids from some schools have been
attracted to magnet schools, leaving the students without leadership skills at
the other schools.
Mike
Janas: George
Ziegelmueller's experience is the same as mine. I've faced two major problems [in Birmingham, AL]. One is teacher retention. There is no continuity in the city
schools. Two is tyrannical
principals. If they don't want
debate, there's not going to be a team.
So a big question is how to sell debate to principals.
Betty
Maddox: It's
important to just get them to see a tournament and talk to parents. At our second annual banquet, a board
member came and listened to the parents and the kids talking, and they were
very impressed. The most moving speeches came from the middle school kids. One student said "I thank god for
my coach!" (she thought she was in a round).
George
Ziegelmueller: There
were a lot of parents and administrators at the second banquet for the Detroit
Public League, as well.
Melissa
Wade: I
have fancy stationery, and I constantly send letters to the Atlanta public
schools when they try to kill debate.
I even had to petition for Larry's school to let him come here
today. We can write lots of fancy
letters. At Emory, we're very
fortunate. We have 60 debaters,
and 20-30 are very affluent; they need to learn. The affluent among our students need to learn about those
from different socio-economic backgrounds or they, like Ryan Sparacino, have
the potential to grow from young naivete to adult counterproductiveness. We have an usual side benefit in our
retention rate. The UDL is a major
force in
our virtually non-existent attrition rate. Students from Emory don't just compete to win at
tournaments, they share a common task in teaching/judging/volunteering in the
UDL/ENDI programs. It is a
powerful antidote to "sophomore slump" to volunteer; to move outside
one's self-centered issues to promote the well being of others; to see the
visible hallmarks of achievement in those with whom you teach/judge. We have made the UDL part of the
mandatory community service program of the Freshman Seminar program at Emory--a
choice many with debate backgrounds prefer to other projects. This has brought many to Barkley Forum
membership that never would have become tournament debaters (We have
approximately 60 debaters who will attend at least one tournament a year; 40-45
who actively attend tournaments; approximately 20 who never attend tournaments,
but work with UDL a good bit).
Tournament debaters are required to judge at a minimum of 2 tournaments
with UDL students (regular Georgia circuit or UDL only) per semester as part of
their contribution to the debate team.
It cannot be stressed enough that affluent students (both Emory debaters and
regular Georgia circuit high school debaters from affluent backgrounds) benefit
equally with UDL students in the dialogue created across the common task that
is debate competition. As the late
Tazanya Maddox (Betty's daughter) said after the ENDI her junior year in high
school, "I see more of our similarities than our differences when we are
working on a debate argument together."
Larry
Moss: The
retention problem is related to principals. In my approach, I say "Here's a trophy. What's your football team done
lately?" It's also very
important to get principals to appoint the proper coach.
Myron
King: What
about people in districts where there is no debate tradition? How do you persuade a school board of
the importance of debate before a league is formed?
George
Ziegelmueller: Just
do it. Don't wait for the school
board. That will be the last place
to go. You must start out with
teachers. Later, [to get the
administration behind it], you can do things like find out who the biggest football
rival is, and say that we beat them.
Melissa
Wade: Another
thing you can do is recycle trophies and gavels. Kids are starved for these kinds of things. We recycle Emory debate trophies for
the high school tournaments--but several high schools have started donating
their trophies to our efforts. We
expect an accelerating state-wide recycling program for the trophies this
year. Call alums and beg them to
judge. There's no reason to pay
students [on your college team] to judge.
You can run a tournament for free.
Beth
Breger:
In certain schools, principals can move mountains. There are over 100 schools in New York, with populations in
which 70% of the families are on welfare.
Mike
Janas: We
use the fine arts co-ordinator in the Birmingham public schools.