Surviving the Ethos Debate Camp
Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Extra-curricular Activities on 22 Aug 2011.
15-year old homeschooler Joshua Kam was one of the participants at the Ethos Debate Camp in Singapore, organised by US-based Ethos Publications. Joshua was one happy camper when the grueling 5-day event was over. Here’s his report.
IN EARLY JUNE MY MOM AND I ATTENDED THE ETHOS DEBATE CAMP in Singapore and loved it – every gruelling, chaotic, kan-cheong, hilarious moment! It was an intense five-day camp that stretched both the limits of my cognitive stamina and the weary nib of my 2b pencil. But here I am, nearly two months later, reviewing my old notes from that week, and grinning like a Cheshire cat.
The camp was run by a group of Americans from the Ethos group, a Christian organization that emphasizes critical thinking coupled with sound, reasonable faith. So it is a Christian debate workshop to teach kids (in this case, homeschoolers) the basics of good debating. And that, I must say, was a badly needed foundation for many of us – myself included!
My mom and I arrived at the camp (held in a church) on the 6th of June. There were about sixty people in all, counting facilitators, students, and parents, who were encouraged to stay in and learn with the kids. After registration and a little bit of mingling, Tim Snyder who was one of the teachers got the older half of the camp together and off we went!
The first and second days were mainly instructive sessions. The teachers Luke Juday, Josiah McPeak, and Tim Snyder, taught us the basics of policy debate – how a standard tournament works, the art of critical thinking and developing smooth, eloquent speeches. My Mom and I remember how easily half of our notebooks got swallowed up in a combination of notes, questions, and reminders. We certainly learned a lot.
We soon found out that we’d only be studying policy debate in this camp. Policy debates are arguments over what should be done in a given situation (e.g. should the government arrange peace talks between Israel and Palestine? Or, should Malaysia make an alliance with the Czech Republic?).
The instructors then explained to us about the four stock issues that needed dealing with to make a logical plan-of-action in a policy debate. In layman’s terms, this means that your argument has to answer four crucial questions to make sense:
1. Topicality: Is this proposal/argument relevant to the discussion –are you really dealing with the issue?
2. Significance: Do the benefits of your proposal outweigh its costs?
3. Solvency: Is this proposal even plausible?
4. Inherency: Will this plan help us, or end up being the same if we had maintained status quo?
If you can defend your proposal clearly in all these areas, then you have a solid argument. I admit this is just a small sample of what our lively company discussed since I’ve barely scratched the surface. But I am sure you have a rough idea what we did there!
This intense, comprehensive crash-course was followed by opportunities for us to put those newly acquired skills into action. Throughout our last three sessions we prepared and practiced to debate the colourful controversies of Singaporean politics. Our topic was, ‘Singapore needs major changes in its electoral system.’
Already somewhat restless after two days at our desk, we were finally set free to hone our clumsy blades by battling against one another. Being Malaysian put me at a disadvantage as I had to research lots to make a decent case for either side of the debate. I think this explains why I lost two out of three rounds of debate in the final tournament that was held on the last day. But once I got over the mild ignominy of this loss, I left the camp feeling quite satisfied with myself.
To be honest, this was one of the most rigorous camps I’d ever been to. There’s some homework involved, and the debate rounds can be awfully stressful. But if you are willing to work hard, think on your feet, and do not mind researching late into the night on any given topic, I strongly, strongly recommend you attend the Ethos Debate Camp when it comes around next year!
————————————————————————————————-
About the writer: Josh is a fifteen year old homeschooler who likes cookies, good books and tearjerker movies. He counts Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings Trilogy among his favourites books. He is also the current President of our own Junior Public Speaking Club KL/PJ which meets once a month in PJ.
2 Comments so far...
Bee Leng Says:
23 August 2011 at 4:10 pm.
Well done, Joshua! Sounds like a tough course but am sure it was worth all the knowledge and experience gained.
Moses Says:
24 August 2011 at 4:38 am.
Our son in the USA participated in speech and debate for the first time last year. He did Lincoln Douglass VALUE debate rather than POLICY debate. Regardless, it was the best thing we ever did for our son in any program external to our home. It literally transformed him by giving him a platform to communicate to the world. The communication skills and intellectual honing are beyond exaggeration. Now we understand why so many Christian families in the USA expend an extraordinary effort (time, money, and study) on speech and debate. We believe that just the first year alone has indelibly marked our son for life in his ability to be a better builder of God’s kingdom. When we first started, it was merely to be an extracurricular activity but it quickly became the dominant activity of his life – and well worth the investment. We joke that is must be a ‘cult’ because it is so fun and significant. Glad to see that this is available in part in SE Asia.