World Schools Workshop Tournament Has Begun

The World Schools workshop students, who come from five different countries, have entered the final phase of their program -- the tournament. There will be a six round tournament and then the top two teams will stage a final top determine the WDI World Schools Champion.

Students come from the USA, Korea, Canada, Malaysia and Slovenia, some of the best debating nations in the world. After working with an all-star international faculty, it is now down to business.

They will debate three topic that they have prepared four as well as three topics that are given to them one hour before the debate. The rush has been on in the pursuit of information and good arguments for the last few days, and with the final scheduled for tomorrow now is the key time.

Two students are pictured here. Helen who debates for Canada and Tim who debates for Slovenia. We will post the results and hope to have a video of the final to show you.

College Policy Debate Workshop In Full Swing

As July ended the air was full of debating at the World Debate Institute. The college policy debaters were having their daily practice debates in the Old Mill complex right next to the Royall Tyler Theatre, the headquarter of the WDI.

There was a wide variety of experience on display. Some of the students here are among the finest debaters in America and are working hard now to prepare for a year that will prove that. On the other hand, there are fairly new debaters here. The good part is that they are very accepting of one another and work together on research assignments. Some of the more experienced debaters have been helping the less experienced by watching their debates and making comments. There is no doubt that learning to judge debates also makes one a better debater. The senior faculty, Kevin, Jackie, Sarah and David have done a great job of bringing divergent groups of students together.

We have also seen the considerable progress of Max Adler from New York City. Max is an extremely intelligent young man but he cannot talk. But, he can debate. He has been working with a pair of American Sign Language translators to "get their signs straight" and is developing new methods of taking notes. We will talk more about Max in the future.