Wow, it's been almost 1 year since my last post. While I haven't been posting, I have been gathering my thoughts, attending and judging debates and, making plenty of notes to add to my blog.
Let's start with a little bit of background. I grew up in Texas (which will later prove to be very important), I attended a small high school. I believe there were about 150 in my graduating class. I was an average student. There is no excuse for me, I really thought of school as a waste of time. I took my required classes, passed (some just barely) but was never very interested in more than leaving school and hanging out with my horses. I am a college graduate, suma cume laude in fact. I married in college and never really worked a job outside the home. I worked briefly after college in the law area but after having my first child, never went back to work again. I stay home and consider it one of the top 3 things I have been able to do in my life.
To the good stuff. Three years ago my (now) senior child decided he wanted to take a speech and debate class. I was thrilled, public speaking for me, as most people, terrifying. Four days later he came to me and told me he would need me to be a judge at their first tournament. Yikes, ok. I had no idea what I suppose to do, their coach would explain what was expected of me and I'd be fine.
A few days before the tournament, coach sat me down and explained. (This is all I remember of the conversation). "This paper should explain most things. Basically, the first speaker will stand up and state his/her resolution and their contentions, each resolution will have a value and you just judge on their debate of the value." Sounds good right? Wrong.
After (literally) taking a zanax in the school parking lot, I entered the school, made my way to the judges lounge and sat by myself shaking. The other volunteer/coerced parents showed up and the tournament began. High school debate tournaments are an amazing feat of fitting as many teams into as many rooms, closets, gym locker rooms, theater prop rooms a school has. I found myself in the theatre prop room and the only positive that came from my first debate was the fact that the kids looked way more nervous than me. Of course, by now the zanax had just began to kick in.
The ballots for Lincoln Douglas debate will give each person their side (pro or con, for or against) and mention who goes first. I was ready, then one side asked me if I wanted some flow paper. Flow paper, what the hell?? Sure, I took a sheet of 9x11 blank paper. Somewhere in the dark corner of my memory I remember that I have to FLOW the debate and keep time. Time, gotta get out my phone and keep track of time. Looking extremely confident I then asked the debaters to remind me how much time I would need to allow each. In a nutshell, I had no friggin idea what I was doing there or what I was even suppose to do.
Three years later I can laugh about it. I hear the way my kids rant over the judges and I would have loved to be a fly on the wall when my first debaters left the room. I'd also love to see some of my first ballots I filled out and my reason for decision. Why they even let me judge again is one of the great questions of all time. It's also one of the reasons I am writing this blog. I hope some kids find this blog and read so they can understand that us "parent" judges are given a ballot and sent on our merry way, but, I REALLY want the parents to understand how to judge and, why, yes why, it is extremely important for judges to have some idea of how they should judge.
I shall ramble more tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment