We are creeping up to the time for our first debate tournament of the year. Friday-Saturday, October 11-12, Sylvan hills heads up to Conway to compete in the Conway Classy. The bears will be competing in three forms of debate, Novice Congressional Debate, Varsity Congressional Debate, and Poetry Interpretation.
We asked around how the Bears were feeling about the debate Friday. Competitive Speech and Creative writing teacher Jennifer Alaquinez said, “I’m excited, but I also know we got to start somehow, and it’s a learning experience.”
The first two forms of debate are Novice and Varsity Congressional Debate. The only difference between the two is that Novice is for first year students and Varsity is for second year or longer students. In Novice we have two students competing, Jaiden Bridgers and Nash Nelson. Varsity also has two students competing with that being Mark Smith and Nicholaus Warnock. These students will be debating over different pieces of legislation such as bills to pass or fail.
When asked about the debate, Junior, Jaiden Bridgers responded by saying, “Nothing else matters but here and now. If we lose it happened and if we win it happened. No need to dwell on it.”
The last form of debate is Poetry Interpretation in which only one student, Ashton Parker, is competing in. Poetry interpretation is regarded as recreating the thoughts and emotions of the poet in the minds of the audience. The topic that Parker will be speaking about is the contrasting expectations placed upon young women by American society.
When asked about the tournament, Sophomore Ashton Parker stated, “I’m gonna talk, it might go well, I might just like, cry. I don’t know.”
