Hubby and I are hanging in the DC, I'm reading blogs and he's filling up the Nano we got free when our favorite niece picked out a new mac as the family graduation gift...
As I browsed Facebook, it hit me -- thanks to hubby's move, we don't have to go to debate camp this year!
Not that I don't looove debate camp -- because, well, I don't exactly love it.
To be more precise, I have a love/hate relationship with it. I've had some fun and had some good conversations with some really nice people. I've met some great coaches and had a good time working with them. I've also had some pretty good results for my students -- D1, D2, and Rex learned a lot last year and the year before Bex and the Woodchuck gained another level of debate ability by going...
On the other hand -- debate camp is long, living in the dorms with undergrads is trying and stressful at best and it takes a long time out of my summer.... and it is a long way away, especially this year when it is in Wyoming. Two years ago we made the 18 hour drive in one day-- passing THREE Cabella's on the way....
Living in the dorm isn't comfortable when you are a late-30s married couple, who enjoy little things like non-worn out twin sized beds, carpets on the floor and our own bathroom.
Last year hubby, a buddy, and I were in charge of camp. Hubby had the audacity to write three rules of conduct, the third of which was simply to say that camp faculty should refrain from **instigating** relationships with debaters. This is in response to the prior year when the faculty didn't have enough brains to do so on their own. As a result, the guilty people from the prior year made things really miserable for hubby --
The year before last, every night of camp, someone was arrested for their use of illegal chemicals -- every f-ing night. At least last year the worst that happend was a pretty strange incident in which a drunken debater bit the ankles of several of his closest friends.
This year I'm sending Herbie and Swear Jar to camp without me. I know they'll probably break a few alcohol rules, but I hope they have a good experience and learn something that will win them some debate rounds next year.
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4 comments:
Wait...bit the ankles of close friends? STORY TIME! :-) I know what you mean about camp, though...I feel that way about the WU camp, which is why I tend to just go to the end-of-camp tournament and judge.
A debater from Arkansas had a bit too much to drink and when he drinks, he bites.
I started reading you relatively recently. Am I correct in understanding that you coach a college debate team? Is it policy debate? I did that in high school.
Welcome publius!
I do coach college debate -- it isn't policy debate, although the basic ideas are very similar. We have a new topic every round, thus no cut evidence is allowed in the round (we do research and write cases in a 15 or 20 minute prep period). We also don't have Cross-ex, rather we ask questions during the speech time.
The impromptu nature of our style of debate is what makes it a challenge -- where policy has to know one topic in depth, our style requires a wider variety of knowledge to be competitive... or, at minimum, the ability to make stuff up and be convincing!
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