Dear community, I appreciate Gary's efforts to no end. I support the goal of maximizing competitive equity as much as possible without sacrificing other educational objectives of CEDA/NDT debate. But I can't help but wonder is the goal of perfect mutuality in every debate a construction of fantasy that only further serves to divorce debate from the value of persuasion, rhetoric and the role of audience analysis? As we move towards a more mulitcultural and diverse society, is it in the best interest of debate to preserve letting debaters participate in the most monocultural environments we can simulate? How can this ever be a productive laboratory to protect experimentation with different ideas as preparation for the real world? My identity and the choices I have made rarely allow me a world of speaking to audiences who are like me or who agree with what I usually want to say. Is that my preference? Probably not. Is there a real world value to being forced to figure out how to tailor my message to audiences that likely come from different experiences with different viewpoints? Most definitely. Goals of perfect mutuality are an attempt to protect students from having that opportunity and that is not only sad, but a wall from what they will experience when they leave the game of debate. It privileges competitive equity above all else, but of course, that comes at a cost. In fact, would not a better educational goal be to ensure that every debate team simulate as many different audience possibilities over the course of a tournament? Is that better preparation for a world of growing difference? Is this not part of the conversation we should be having over the mission and goals of CEDA versus the NDT? Is it in the best interests of our activity to cede the power of the direction of our activity to individual tournaments? Still continuing the productive conversation of missions and a future for CEDA and to a lesser degree the NDT. Lesser because tournament created practices are the only mechanism the NDT uses for change. CEDA has many more options in their tool belt, however if it chooses to use them. With love, Ede Ede Warner, Jr. Director of Debate Society/Associate Professor of Communication University of Louisville 308E Strickler Hall 502-852-3522 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://comm.louisville.edu/~debate
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