US education

[xorbie]

Wondering if anyone would want to debate any issue on the state of high school and college education in the US. Possible specific topics include the virtues of standardized tests, ways to fix the poor state of education (or, if you want, arguing that the state of education is not poor somehow) or basically anything else related to this topic.

[yelyos]

I might want to debate you; I'm in the Canadian high school system but I have many close friends in American high schools.

What positions do you support?

[jonas2000]

I'll join in. Which side should I take?

[yelyos]

Are three way debates even permitted under the FD&D rules?

[KnightWhoSaysNi]

Only one on one debates are permitted in FDD. Multi-participant debates can be, and are, done in the regular fora. :)

Jason

[jonas2000]

OK, then I won't debate :)

[DigitalChicken]

Keep in mind there is no "US School system." There is a wide degree of variation and independence around the U.S. and even eithin some states.

DC

[xorbie]

I didn't really have any specific position or even topic in mind... just wondering if anyone out there had a yearning to debate any specific one.

[Peter Kirby]

Originally posted by Nightshade
Only one on one debates are permitted in FDD. Multi-participant debates can be, and are, done in the regular fora. What about formal discussions? Will there be any of those? Aren't there issues where more than two options are available, and where it might be a good idea to have a discussion among more than two people? Yes, they could happen in the regular fora, but the advantages to a formal discussion are (1) whittling down of participants ahead of time, (2) greater effort put into producing quality posts, and (3) greater exposure for the ideas expressed.

There's a practical reason I ask--I have been wanting to set up a formal discussion with 3 or more people when I'm ready to.

best,
Peter Kirby

[KnightWhoSaysNi]

Hi Peter,

I can be flexible about allowing that. I'll bring this up in the MCR for discussion and to see what the other FD mods think.

Jason

[xorbie]

I would love to have a formal discussion with 2 or more people about education because I don't have so many of the necessary facts and statistics on hand, and it would mean I would not have to take such a definitive stance ahead of time.

[yelyos]

I am of the opinion that "zero tolerance" policies are very bad ideas.

If this is not your opinion, I would be happy to debate.

[xorbie]

I have a strict zero tolerance program with regards to zero tolerance programs. :D

[mikester]

another canadian high school grad here (recently, too).

id love to join in this discussion if it ever gets going. :)

[xorbie]

Yeah, so about those three way discussions, some interest was raised about one pertaining education. I was wondering if we were anywhere nearer reaching the possiblity of a three way discussion/debate, which I am still interested in.

[KnightWhoSaysNi]

Originally posted by xorbie
Yeah, so about those three way discussions, some interest was raised about one pertaining education. I was wondering if we were anywhere nearer reaching the possiblity of a three way discussion/debate, which I am still interested in.

Hi Xorbie,

You need to submit a RFD (request for debate) in that thread as explained in Rules and Procedures (http://www.iidb.org/vbb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=56978) and get all the participants to agree with certain debate parameters:


(a) The topic of the debate.

(b) The participants of the debate, and what positions they will argue.

(c) The scope of the debate.

(d) The length of the debate, in number of rounds (no more than 10 rounds per debate).

(e) Whether statements will be made concurrently or in turns, and if the latter, who goes first.

(f) The maximum length of each statement (no more than 5,000 words per statement).

(g) The maximum duration between statements.

(h) The extent to which quotes from outside sources will be permitted (absolutely no copyright violation or outright plagiarism will be allowed).

(i) The starting date of the debate.

(j) Any additional rules or a debate format that debate participants must observe (subject to moderator approval).


Jason

[xorbie]

So basically just the same for a two person debate? A quick question about (b) is when the topic originally came up, the idea was that the three people involved did not really have any definitive position. This would be more of a consensus building than debating. Would that be ok?

[KnightWhoSaysNi]

(I'm moving this discussion back into the education thread)

Originally posted by xorbie
So basically just the same for a two person debate? A quick question about (b) is when the topic originally came up, the idea was that the three people involved did not really have any definitive position. This would be more of a consensus building than debating. Would that be ok?

Yes, it would be the same as setting up any formal debate.

I also think it's important that the participants have some sort of position or stance (or multiple positions) they want to take. For example, one person would take the position of supporting Canadian school systems, another the US, and another Japan. Or perhaps take some three way sort of political position on education (left, moderate, or right wing).

Jason