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Last year I was lucky enough to be there and it was great! I cannot be there this time, but you should not miss it! -Alfred Snider, Editor This is the second year HDD (Croatian debating society) is organizing an international tournament in Zagreb. This year's WHO (Winter Holidays Open) will take place from 19th to 21st of December 2014 in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia . Last year's tournament hosted 38 teams. This year's team cap is 70 teams so we're hoping even more teams will join us in experiencing debating in Zagreb during holiday season. The debate format will be World schools. The tournament will consist of 6 preliminary rounds, semifinals and the Grand Finals. Any team of three speakers and a coach who is over 18 is welcome to participate. Registration costs cover accommodation, food and participation and can be seen in the invitation letter attached to this e-mail. The debaters will get a chance to test their skills on two prepared and two impromptu...

Dear friends, We are delighted to announce the launch of the inaugural Global Debate Essay Contest, as part of the lead-up to the World Schools Debating Championship in Singapore in 2015. The contest will offer participants an opportunity to reflect on the nature and purpose of debate. It is open to anyone who considers themselves to be a part of the debating community. The closing date is 15 January 2015, and more details are attached. [We have also attached the winning entries and Judges’ Report from the local edition of the tournament, for your reference] We would be grateful if you could help publicize this to anyone who you think might be interested in the contest. We look forward to reading your entries! Please ‘like’ the WSDC Singapore Facebook page for more updates! Please feel free to contact us if you have any further queries. Thank you very much for your time. Best wishes, Chua Jun Yan and Chong Ee Hsiun Competition Administrators

Sunrise behind the Ritchie Center on the University of Denver's campus (07/27/06). (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) University of Denver / Regis University NAUDC bid Colleagues, It is our pleasure to invite the North American Universities Debate Championship (NAUDC) to Denver, Colorado in 2015. To date, the tournament has been held on the eastern portion of the continent which hampers the ability of some of our western colleagues to affordably attend. Denver serves as a location that is easily and affordably reachable for schools from anywhere on the continent.  Below please find the preliminary proposal. Date: October 23-25, 2015 Site: The University of Denver (DU). Located just south of downtown Denver, DU is a beautiful, modern campus with more than enough classroom space to hold a tournament of this size. DU was the host for the 2010 USU Debating Championship (USUDC) and the 2011 National Parliamentary Tournament of Excellence (NPTE). Classroom availability for the propos...

Sir Winston Churchill High School, 5220 Northland Dr. N.W., Calgary, Alberta, Canada, T2L 2J6 (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Calgary Students Thrilled by Verbattle By Sophie Zhao, 12 October 2014 In its second year of operation at Sir Winston Churchill High School, Verbattle has received extremely positive feedback from both the student and staff population. The Verbattle club runs every Tuesday at lunch and invites students of all backgrounds and experience levels to participate in debate about a broad range of subjects. So far, several heated debates regarding high school life, politics, and controversial issues in the fields of science and philosophy have already been staged and audience for these discussions grows every week; currently, dozens of people participate regularly in Verbattle debate. Upon being asked to summarize what they learned in Verbattle, several students state that it has improved their debating skills, given them more confidence in public speaking, and also drove ...

Verbattle Open is a unique experiment in the history of organized debating.  While debate competitions are normally held in a certain category, in a certain geographical limitation, for a certain age group and under certain conditions, Verbattle Open is a truly open debate, in the sense, it allows participation of anyone aged 16 years and above, belonging to any background and any nationality, to  compete by teaming up with anyone, from any background and any nationality as long as the other person too is 16 years and above. The only limitation will be the language of the debate, that is English, as of now. Verbattle Foundation, through Verbattle Open, has the purpose to popularize civil debates in a very uninhibited & cordial spirit and atmosphere. The objective is to make the participants realize and enjoy the values of democracy & responsible free speech, while looking at the world in a 360 degree perspective. -- Thanks & Regards, Verbattle Foundatio...

What it’s like when a prison debate team matches wits with preppy college kids http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/wp/2014/10/17/what-its-like-when-a-prison-debate-team-matches-wits-with-preppy-college-kids/ By Matt McFarland October 17 The United States imprisons more people per capita than any country. Why not educate them? Above, Max Kenner receives an award for his work in prisoner education. (Matt McFarland/The Washington Post) Max Kenner, founder of the Bard Prison Initiative , was honored for his work in education Thursday night at Smithsonian Magazine’s American Ingenuity Awards. The initiative offers the chance for inmates at six New York state prisons to take classes and earn degrees from Bard College . Kenner gave a moving acceptance speech about the largely untapped potential of prison inmates. I’ve excerpted a portion of it below. Kenner dove into the speech with a great anecdote about his prison program’s debate team: A few weeks ago the debate team from the...

REGISTER TODAY FOR THE IPPF THERE'S STILL TIME TO COMPETE! QUALIFYING ROUND ESSAYS DUE OCTOBER 22. WHAT IS THE IPPF? The IPPF is an international debate competition for high school students - but this is not your average debate tournament. Sponsored by the Bickel & Brewer Foundation and New York University, the IPPF is the only debate contest that combines persuasive essay writing with oral argumentation.  To participate in the competition, form a team and register at www.ippfdebate.com/register . Teams should be comprised of at least three students. There is no fee to participate in the IPPF.  After forming a team, students should draft a 2,800 word qualifying round essays affirming or negating the IPPF topic, "Resolved: Mass surveillance is not a justified method of governmental intelligence gathering." Essays must be submitted to ippf@bickelbrewer.com by October 22, 2014. Judges will evaluate each essay, and the top 64 teams will advance into a single-elimi...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/10/04/we-should-be-teaching-kids-public-speaking-in-school/ By Neil Mercer, Ayesha Ahmed and Paul Warwick October 4 A recent report confirms that the alumni of British private schools still control politics and many top professions. One reason those people are so successful in public life is, of course, that their shared history gives them privileged networking connections. But they are also commonly very confident, fluent public speakers. They were not born that way. Their skills were developed through their school experience of debate, discussion groups and engaging in dialogues with their teachers. Although the term might not have been used, their education included oracy – skills in using spoken language – as well as literacy and numeracy. For the sake of social equality, all schools should teach children the public speaking skills they need for educational progress, for work and for full participation in democracy. Our research...

http://www.educazione.unipd.it/bottaerisposta/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=124&Itemid=118 Translated from Italian by Google NATIONAL TOURNAMENT 2014 s 1 ° NATIONAL DEBATE TOURNAMENT "GYM Q & A" Padua, 5-7 September 2014 College "Don Nicola Mazza" University ofUniversity of Padua, Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Education and Psychology Applied - FISPPA Association for Culture and PromotionDebate, ACPD "Gym Botta and Response "   Under the Patronagethe Province of Padua ss Regional Agency for the Right to Study university Under the Patronage of the Municipality of Padua   The realization of different projects and organic debate on the Italian territory, or in Italian, has successfully reached a level of development and articulation as to solicit, on the one hand, further challenges and opportunities for discussion, to enhance the impact educational and teaching of this practice and, second, the continuation of the pro...

Harkness Tower, situated in the Memorial Quadrangle at Yale (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Thanks to Steve Llano for doing an excellent job running tab. Brief out-rounds results were as follows (the full rundown will be available at yaledebate.org/iv soon): Open champions on a 4-3 split: Cambridge Thomas & Michael Runners-up: Cornell En Ting & Adnan Other finalists: Harvard Bo & Fanele, Brandeis/Penn Michael & Kyle Top speaker: Veenu Goswami (Hart House) Novice champs: Columbia GB Thanks for coming, everybody! -- Samuel T. Ward-Packard samuel.ward-packard@aya.yale.edu NOTE: Full tab also at Debate Central tab archive -  http://debate.uvm.edu/tabs/YaleIV2014FullTab.pdf