Sapir,+Daniel

I can be condemned for not being a purist since I love PF and like LD. Don’t put me in a Policy round unless you want to see a grown man cry. I love and respect debate for all that it can do for students who find their way to this form of competition. I am always the one person in the room that learns more than the participants with each new round.
 * Background:** I am an old timer who received a BS in Speech from Emerson College in 1964 and an MS in Speech from Emerson in 1967. I have about 20 years direct experience in speech and debate and returned to teaching six years ago because I missed the magic that Jr. & Sr. High School students possess. Since returning to teaching I was the speech & debate coach for four years at Silver Lake Regional HS in Kingston, MA and gladly assumed the position of Director of Speech & Debate at Sacred Heart High School. As luck would have it, I live in Kingston and was never more that seven minutes from either location. No spiraling gas costs for me.

I am a nuts and bolts guy that would take common sense over ultra-sophistication any time. The way to my heart and pen is to hit me with passion, a reasonably paced debate, keeping me informed as to why you are winning, and being correct in that assessment.
 * Approach:** Anything is on the table if relevant and, warranted and sound impacts. Play to but don’t pander the judge. Tell me why you are winning the debate and spell it out. Conversely, if you are taking it on the chin, fight back and don’t cry foul throughout the discourse because you either realize that your case is being decimated or you can’t break through it. I have no tolerance for the rapid fire never come up for air approach; it will overwhelm me because I have learned that at my age I can’t think as fast as you can talk. I will put my pen on the table and wait for it to slow down…if it never does, I’ll have to relegate the round to the side that captured me best. At lot of my speech training was in interp and reading events, I love to see a robust, health debate also adhering to those skills. This too will weigh heavily on Speaker Points. Instead of soaring only during CX, you could hit a double whammy based on your Affirmative or Negative Case. I will be on to you if you believe that “spreading” to a point of obsession is going to allow you to steal the round.