book about High School debate...

"Cross-X" was a fascinating book. I'll post more on it later

Joe Miller went deep into Kansas City Central High School's attempt to have a nationally competitive debate team. According to Miller, the problems faced by Central were based in racism.

The thing is, Miller is wrong in blaming KCC's problems on race. There were many times I experienced the exact same issues with my white community college team. There were many rounds that they lost when they seemed to have won the arguments -- in state it was because they dared to debate like the national circuit and out of state it was because they dared to enter the open division.

The worst times were when they'd get a hard time because they didn't go to the community college nationals, which was my decision... FYI, I think the CC national speech and debate tournament has some anti-educational practices.

So, while Miller seems to get the real feeling of a debate team right, he doesn't quite have the breadth of experience to get the under-dog part right.