23 Minutes of Non-stop Debate

Thursday, January 17, 2008

As we walked into class on Thursday, we realized what was coming, the anticipated debate we had been preparing since Tuesday. We shook hands with Mr. Armstrong as usual and took our seats in the inner circle for the first debaters, and the outer circle for the “jury”. This arrangement was familiar to us as we had used it for IC/OC seminars. Before we started, Mr. Armstrong reminded us to refute the opposing side’s arguments as well as stating your own. He also told us the basics for the debate – address him as judge, address an individual as “Honorable someone”, and stand up before saying Point of Information a.k.a. POI. Then the clock started ticking and the first debate began. Virginia and New Jersey debated over if the representatives sent to Congress should be based on population. Virginia was for this idea because it was the largest state while New Jersey wanted something more beneficial for the small colony. In the end, New Jersey won and Mr. Armstrong explained why. The second debate was Pennsylvania vs. South Carolina. They were debating if enslaved Africans should be counted as part of the state’s population. South Carolina, being a southern state with many slaves, was for this idea unlike Pennsylvania who argued against this idea. As the debate heated up, the clock ticked away. In the end, Mr. Armstrong had to stop us after the third speaker and the remaining speakers breathed a sigh of relief. Before we packed up, Mr. Armstrong commented on our first debate of 8^th grade. He told us that although we could improve in some areas, it wasn’t bad for the first debate. Just before the bell rang, he also reminded us of our homework which was to take notes on Week Three Immersion. Overall, today’s class was different from our usual classes and we all got to do what we do best, argue with people.

Sangwoo N.