On Saturday, Oct. 28, the RCMS debate team competed against four other schools at 2023’s first tournament at a private school in D.C., winning first place for speaker points, and placing multiple times for group wins.
“The team did amazing,” said Ms. Pamela Konde.
Living up to its legacy, as the team has never disappointed, the RCMS debate team once again received high placements for group wins, and first place for speaker points.
Proceeding weeks of long, hard work, and consistent dedication, competitors finally feel that their hard work has paid off, as student Aarav Shivashankar states.
Debate teachers Ms. Olivia Adams, also a seventh grade English teacher on the Champions team, and Ms. Konde, also a History teacher on the All-Stars team, both agree on the fact that the main source of the team’s success is the hard work, passion, and collaboration abilities that the debaters possess. Ms. Adams also thinks that the high standards and legacy the team holds push the students to do their best and persevere.
Both teachers and multiple students also pointed out that the confidence of our debaters propels their cases in the eyes of the judges and that the student’s ability to flow their speech helps as well.
“Just go with the flow,” Shivashankar said.
According to Aarav, the tournament felt more comfortable than most new debaters had expected.
“Seems more like a hangout than a debate.” Shivashankar said.
The idea of constantly being surrounded by friends and being able to talk to them soothed the nerves bustling through new debaters, as more than one debater stated. The debaters also enjoyed the freedom given to students in the tournament. They can walk around freely and communicate in between debates.
“Really fun, not just debate after debate,” Shivashankar said
The tournament consisted of four rounds of debate, with each team debating the pro and con sides of two topics. “Should GMO labels be required on GMO products?” and “Should healthcare be a universal right?”
Students also stated that the topics were both very relevant considering the recent rise in GMO products on shelves, and the new viruses going around. However, some students find that some of these topics were biased to one side as debate student Ayana Singh stated,
“The GMO case pro side had more info to back it up and it in essence supported the con side of the debate.” Ayana says.
Students also said that they experienced unfair judgment due to the fact that judges were mostly parents with quick training before the start of the tournament. Complaints were raised after an RCMS student was accused of using ChatGPT in the first round of her debate.
Overall, as Ayana Singh states, the team did very well as a whole. For improvement, however, she feels that if eighth grade returning debaters validated the new seventh-graders instead of underestimating them, the team would do better. She also says that more practice is required as the team meets only once a week.
Although the tournament took place only a couple of weeks after the tryout, the team was able to pull together and do their best.
The experience taught them a lot as they stated and made students accustomed to what tournaments may look like. They didn’t have much time to prepare, but they still managed to put their cases together.
“You kind of have to make do with what you have,” Aarav said.
