It's EXTEMPORANEOUS for a reason
I'm always driven back here when something just sets me off. So what is it now, might you ask?
This weekend was the national qualification tournament for debate nationals. I competed in my usual event, extemp (international, to be exact), and, no beating around the bush, I got second. So I am going to nationals this year. What pisses me off, however, is who got first and what his team did.
The rules in extemp are pretty straightforward--the only written material allowed in the room are published magazines, articles, journals, etc. The rules state very clearly that briefs, outlines and pre-written speeches are NOT allowed.
So what did Cossette find out afterwards? Apparently, the kid who beat me (and other extempers from his school, Central Valley) had a host of pre-written topic outlines. Meaning, he had heaven knows how many one to two page outlines breaking down the issues of various topic (e.g. US relations with Iran, the North Korean nukes, stuff like that). The sheet Cossette showed me was discussing cloned food and the FDA. This sheet was without a doubt a pre-written speech. It had an intro, three main points for why cloned food was controversial, and a conclusion. In addition, various subpoints in the outline were footnoted, referencing the specific sources. What this meant was that the users of these outlines had to ZERO work. They could have just spent their prep time memorizing the outline verbatim and had a fine extemp speech.
And this really, really pisses me off. We have a great extemp program here at Prep, and we all work very hard for it. We print our own articles, we index our own magazines, and by golly, we write our OWN fucking speeches. And you know what? WE WIN. So to find out other extempers are 1) cheating and 2) not even doing any independent work SERIOUSLY pisses me off. And the fact that a cheater actually placed above me.
If you are wondering why the offending extempers weren't disqualified, we talked it over with the district chair, and they felt a warning was sufficient. A warning! As if these extempers had NO idea that having a pre-written speech might be against the rules. Maybe that might fly at a local tournament, but it is not fair AT ALL for people to make it to nationals while merrily breaking the rules. However, if we try to press it, there is a chance they will take our side but then force us to run extemp over again from the beginning. And while i'm pretty confident I will still be able to get first or second, I don't want to do that. This was a 17 hour day for me. I really don't feel like repeating that.
Part of this, I will admit, is a pride issue. I am, with regards to league standings, the best extemper in our area, and probably one of the top two in general for our area (teammate Smentek I think is par with me; he's strong where I'm weak and vice versa). During this tournament, I struck up a friendly rivarly with the guy who placed first; he had never beaten me before and thus wanted to take me down. And now I'm pissed that he got first, because there's no WAY he deserves it. And I know it's seems like splitting hairs, since I'm still going to nationals, but I don't want people to think he beat me. He didn't. He cheated. But I also don't want people to think I'm just a sore loser--to think that I pissed just because I lost. If he had beat me fair and square, fine. I'd be a little disappointed in myself, but whatever. But the fact is he didn't beat me fairly. As far as I'm concerned right now, he didn't beat me at all.
All in all, it was a very bitter second for me. Stuff like this... I know life isn't fair and all, but when we work SO hard for every accolade we earn, and then people do stuff like this and WIN, it pisses me off.
This weekend was the national qualification tournament for debate nationals. I competed in my usual event, extemp (international, to be exact), and, no beating around the bush, I got second. So I am going to nationals this year. What pisses me off, however, is who got first and what his team did.
The rules in extemp are pretty straightforward--the only written material allowed in the room are published magazines, articles, journals, etc. The rules state very clearly that briefs, outlines and pre-written speeches are NOT allowed.
So what did Cossette find out afterwards? Apparently, the kid who beat me (and other extempers from his school, Central Valley) had a host of pre-written topic outlines. Meaning, he had heaven knows how many one to two page outlines breaking down the issues of various topic (e.g. US relations with Iran, the North Korean nukes, stuff like that). The sheet Cossette showed me was discussing cloned food and the FDA. This sheet was without a doubt a pre-written speech. It had an intro, three main points for why cloned food was controversial, and a conclusion. In addition, various subpoints in the outline were footnoted, referencing the specific sources. What this meant was that the users of these outlines had to ZERO work. They could have just spent their prep time memorizing the outline verbatim and had a fine extemp speech.
And this really, really pisses me off. We have a great extemp program here at Prep, and we all work very hard for it. We print our own articles, we index our own magazines, and by golly, we write our OWN fucking speeches. And you know what? WE WIN. So to find out other extempers are 1) cheating and 2) not even doing any independent work SERIOUSLY pisses me off. And the fact that a cheater actually placed above me.
If you are wondering why the offending extempers weren't disqualified, we talked it over with the district chair, and they felt a warning was sufficient. A warning! As if these extempers had NO idea that having a pre-written speech might be against the rules. Maybe that might fly at a local tournament, but it is not fair AT ALL for people to make it to nationals while merrily breaking the rules. However, if we try to press it, there is a chance they will take our side but then force us to run extemp over again from the beginning. And while i'm pretty confident I will still be able to get first or second, I don't want to do that. This was a 17 hour day for me. I really don't feel like repeating that.
Part of this, I will admit, is a pride issue. I am, with regards to league standings, the best extemper in our area, and probably one of the top two in general for our area (teammate Smentek I think is par with me; he's strong where I'm weak and vice versa). During this tournament, I struck up a friendly rivarly with the guy who placed first; he had never beaten me before and thus wanted to take me down. And now I'm pissed that he got first, because there's no WAY he deserves it. And I know it's seems like splitting hairs, since I'm still going to nationals, but I don't want people to think he beat me. He didn't. He cheated. But I also don't want people to think I'm just a sore loser--to think that I pissed just because I lost. If he had beat me fair and square, fine. I'd be a little disappointed in myself, but whatever. But the fact is he didn't beat me fairly. As far as I'm concerned right now, he didn't beat me at all.
All in all, it was a very bitter second for me. Stuff like this... I know life isn't fair and all, but when we work SO hard for every accolade we earn, and then people do stuff like this and WIN, it pisses me off.