[GFCA] Novice Public Forum Resources for September/October

[Jeffrey Miller]

Hi, everyone,

I have attached an affirmative case and a negative case on the
September/October Public Forum resolution.   I decided to send this email
after a lot of thought regarding the purpose of novice public forum
divisions and how that compares to how we approach the novice policy
divisions.

In Novice Policy, we give a packet that every first-year debater has to use
in an effort both to encourage debaters to choose policy debate and to make
teaching easier.  The goal of the packet is to make debates better--in
terms of competition, but more importantly, in terms of educational value.  So
many times novice debates fall apart after the 1AC/1NC (or in PF the
constructives)  because a team will reads an argument their opponents have
never heard and don't have a block to, and in that uncertainty, the
debaters just freeze.

I have four primary purposes of sending cases to the state listserv.

*1) I want Georgia public forum teams to model positive evidence ethics.*
Seeing what a case looks like and how one is constructed can start students
off the right footing and help them make good, ethical decisions about
cases down the road.  No card is paraphrased in the reading of this case -
that's because we want to promote good evidence ethics.

*2)  It gets novice debate back to its purpose - **the division is not
about winning, but learning**. * I'm not worried about other teams having
my students' novice arguments. Instead, I'm excited because I know teams
can better prepare for the arguments, resulting in more clash in the
debates and a better educational experience for all the students
involved. Novice
debates may still fall apart in the end (Summaries & Final Focuses) but at
least the rebuttals will be better.  I am not suggesting everyone use these
case versions, but I want to promote a community that encourages learning
over competition in novice divisions.

*3) Novices should have a level playing field.*  If cases become
mainstreamed, it could help novices get started (near) the same starting
line.  It could also help establish a JV division for the event. Public
Forum is now in its 15th year, and a JV division may be long overdue.

You are welcome to have your novice teams read the cases or just use them
in practice - but I thought it would be nice for public forum to emulate
some of the successful policy debate teaching tools to make our event
better.

I am constructing a few other novice cases, including a Space BMD
affirmative and a China Diplomacy negative so teams can prepare multiple
arguments on the topic.  I will email those as well hopefully by next week
but wanted to send our first wave before the first tournament.
-- 
Jeffrey Miller
Marist School
Director of Speech & Debate
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