Author: Steve

  • Tournaments are it?

    What else can a debate club do besides tournaments? In the history of US debating, debate was a pipeline to academia. There was scarcely a faculty member who hadn’t been a part of, or at least participated significantly in debating as an undergraduate in speech communication departments. Whether this was a choice, or forced, or…

    Read More

    //

  • American Debate Sediment 1: Student Judging

    There are several issues standing in the way of the creation of an American national circuit of WUDC debating. All of them are quite serious issues, and they are going to take a generation to fix. Fix? Not really the right word. Brush away, clear away, something like that. For these are best considered a…

    Read More

    //

  • On Recording and Posting as Many Debates as we can

    In transit to the US National Open at the Claremont colleges, a tournament that expressly forbids the recording of any of the debates in any form, even with consent. There is a waver procedure you must conform with, and insurance that must be purchased before filming anything on the campus. So go the horrors of being a…

    Read More

    //

  • Public Debate: Arab Spring

    <iframe src=”http://player.vimeo.com/video/29840075?title=0&amp;byline=0&amp;portrait=0″ width=”400″ height=”300″ frameborder=”0″ webkitAllowFullScreen allowFullScreen></iframe><p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/29840075″>Public Debate: Arab Spring demonstrates American Youth have a lot to learn from Arabic Youth</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/user1253612″>Steve Llano</a> on <a href=”http://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a>.</p> This is a public debate we participated in recently in Virginia. While watching it, it made me think of a couple of interesting things about teaching…

    Read More

    //

  • A Debate Coaching Prime Directive

    Image via Wikipedia There’s another one coming up. Another of these “debates” for Republican candidates seeking the U.S. Presidency. And I know my media department at my University is going to want to put my name out as someone willing to give commentary. I am uncertain about this, as I always am. My uncertainty is…

    Read More

    //

  • Storefront Debate

    Image via Wikipedia Watched a documentary about the life of Bruce Lee last week, it still haunts me. Not for any of the clear reasons it should – a man mysteriously dies at the height of his life’s work without foul play – but for one little section. When Bruce Lee moved, wherever he went,…

    Read More

    //

  • How Do You Do That?

    Summer goes slow around here, but what goes slow runs deep. 2 AM. I’m waiting on a bus to take me from the humid sidewalk to my nice, cool apartment. “Hey, Steve? Is that you?” I recognize him, but not in the suit he’s wearing. He’s recently graduated and explains to me he’s headed home…

    Read More

    //

  • The _______ Society

    Not exactly the time for goodbyes and thank yous, but I got one today from a student unexpectedly as I sat on the campus enjoying the evening. He thanked me for opportunities and for the experience, but mostly for something he couldn’t quite articulate. Something that went like this – “Although I didn’t really win…

    Read More

    //

  • A Break

    Writing, writing away, and unaware of the time. You know how it gets you, it’s like Duke Ellington said – about it being close to midnight, and you really should go to bed, but there’s that keyboard over there. What harm in playing around a bit? And you start to play and look up –…

    Read More

    //

  • There’s Nothing Wrong With Obama

    Everyone seems to love this article about what might be wrong with Obama. Many people, who are quite smart, are posting and re-posting this all across Facebook. I read it, and I think the author, a psychology professor from Emory, is also worried about this. But as a psychologist, the most obvious explanation never appears in…

    Read More

    //