The End of Lab

Well, today was the last lab. In a celebratory parting, the gang met at the Tomato for some delectable pizza. While Chris and Spencer played video games, Topper and Travis joined Katherine and Dr. Robinson in a Zizek discussion. Ms. De La Cruz helped Melissa and Danielle finish some case edits while the rest of the lab worked in Chilton. Through lollypops, oppression, critical theory, leetspeak, drills and more, the students have maintained a positive attitude. Everyone should stay in touch. And good luck to those students who broke in the camp tournament!

Yesterday: The Struggle

Today, the students struggled into lab in various stages of tardiness. They also struggled with turning their required evidence on time. Mr. Duby was an excellent enforcer, visiting the Critical Theory Lab to make it clear that debaters who did not turn their evidence in by tomorrow night would not be participating in the elimination rounds of the tournament. After another warning from Katherine, the students inspected the first pairings of the UNT Mean Green Debate Workshop Tournament and then prepped out unique arguments.

False Consciousness

Students took control of the lab this morning when some kids decided to accompany Katherine to the Chilton Hall computer lab, while the other half stayed with Dr. Robinson to work on blocks. But the Critical Theory lab came together tonight to finish the blocks that were started. Laura De La Cruz helped the students prep out against a Marxist affirmative on the condition that everyone understood she did not believe anything she was saying. Her “soul cried” as she listed three reasons why Marxism was wrong. Sparks flew as the blocking exercise devolved into a full blown debate. Ms. De La Cruz held her own against such ardent capitalists as Danielle. In the end, no convictions were changed, but perhaps minds were open.

Practice Makes Perfect

This morning, the Critical Theory lab convened in the computer lab to make last minute edits to their cases. A hurried atmosphere swirled around the students before their first practice round. But in their chaos, they were unified. And the sweet “Team Lollypop” shirts didn’t hurt either. After a short two hour lab, the students were sent to battle for glory in their first debate practice round. Katherine was lucky enough to judge Ryan. Unfortunately, there was not another lab meeting today, but, hopefully, all the practice rounds went well.

Where was the resolution?

The Critical Theory lab started out the day agreeing with Phillip’s statement that “the Wu-Tang Clan ain’t nothing to fire truck with”. In the later lab session, Dr. Scot Robinson brought shirts that Edward applied the coveted “angry lollypop” design to. While he was working, the students participated in a tag-team debate where each student gave a different speech. Mr. Li read a brisk affirmative case and was then questions by Spencer. Spencer then learned that vocal variation is very important when reading the negative case, but that time allocation is more important. After the cross examination, Topper gave a stellar affirmative rebuttal. Travis then gave an amazingly confident negative rebuttal. Following some prep time, Ryan wrapped up the debate. Lab time concluded with divvying up tonight’s pre-emptive block work and finishing the tee shirts.

|>\^/|\| ^vv|35!!!

Unfortunately, the Critical Theory lab did not have much time together today. But everyone did get to see each other’s smiling faces briefly this morning before breaking to finish some research. Before the sad, but temporary, parting, the students collectively decided to make "lab spirit” t-shirts. In a less collective manor, there was debate over which design should be used. Melissa drew a fantastically optimistic lollypop. Edward countered with a vividly angry and oppressed lollypop. He also satirized Ms. De La Cruz’s love for Hello Kitty with a “Hello Karl (Marx)” design. The other highlight of the day was a sublime debate round between the solid David Wolfish and the clutch Tanya Choudhury. The round led the students into a deep discussion until the mandatory evening break. Hopefully, everyone will utilize tomorrow’s morning free time for some needed sleep.

Contradictions

The day began with a wonderful morning lecture on vocal theory. Shortly after the lecture, students practiced their voice inflection in an attempt to become more persuasive. After learning the intricate techniques and tricks, students gathered in their regular lab where Dr. Robinson described schedule updates. These were accompanied by precautionary warnings against becoming over stressed. In a somewhat contradictory move, lunch was chased by heavy research time in the library and computer lab. But, luckily, the rigmarole ended at 5. From then on the students got treated to a delicious dinner and then got to choose from several optional activities including a wonderful debate between the ferocious Josh Mean and the dashing Shane O’Neal.

The Due Date

Campers spent most of today traveling through various lectures and researching. A panic seemed to sweep over students due to the 6:30 deadline for cases. Luckily, the staff was carefully positioned throughout the library to answer any questions or concerns. After dinner, the lab met to discuss today’s research. Laura De La Cruz brought lollypops to make up for Katherine’s selfishness yesterday. She was also extremely generous and brought several JStor articles for students to card. Following the distribution of the articles, Edward and Khurram valiantly volunteered to participate in a practice debate. The lab then spent some time discussing the practice round in terms of argumentation and style. Finally, the Critical Theory lab broke into two groups. Ms. De La Cruz led one group to the computer lab and Dr. Robinson led another to the library. Hopefully, the students found today productive or at least enjoyed the lollypops.

Lollypops and Oppression

Students started today with questions about their impending trip to the library. This research trip would be integral to the students’ case writing process. Melissa took advantage of the open discussion to gain lab feedback on her perspective case ideas. The discussion then progressed into whether social stigmas are better solved by being publicly addressed or left to solve itself. Collectively, the lab pondered whether categorization was harmful to the individual or beneficial to the society. This lead to many different answers and inspired some care ideas. Campers then attended a cross examination lecture and broke into lab in order to have cross examination drills. The cross examination lab was different than normal lab because the students were taught by different instructors. After an intense lecture about critical theory by Ms. De La Cruz, the students discussed inequalities and oppression. Katherine demonstrated oppression by denying the students lollypops in favor of giving one to Ms. De La Cruz. The students recoiled with screams of “oppression.” But these screams were adequately backed by listing the four steps to establishing oppression. The Critical Theory lab undoubtedly earned their namesake.

July 4th

Far from fireworks, the Critical Theory lab spent the first half of the day in logic and casing lectures. Following a lunch break, the students attended their reading groups and then recommenced with Dr. Robinson and Ms. De La Cruz. Today, the lab started with a discussion of the word “citizen” within the resolution. Students questioned whether non-citizens should receive state healthcare or not. Edward made several excellent comments linking today’s discussion to yesterday’s topic of equality. On an interesting side note, Edward lost a race back to the dorm last night against counselor Katherine Thompson. Returning to the conversation at hand, Dr. Scott Robinson cautioned against narrowing the debate to minute specific issues. Ms. De La Cruz agreed, but stressed that although some assumptions of the resolution seem intuitive, it is still important to question them. The lab then verbalized their personal backlash against non-topical arguments and the rest of the designated time was centered on discussing unique positions and how to handle them in round. This led Dr. Robinson to nominate “Sockie the Foot Health” puppet as the lab mascot. Lastly, the campers attempted to write a collective case. The students ended the day with an ice-cream social and then some relaxing free time.

The First Day

Today the Critical Theory lab started the workshop with quick self introductions and then began an analysis of the camp topic. Instead of approaching the resolution from a broad spectrum, Dr. Robinson and Ms. De La Cruz centered the discussion around the basic idea of equality. Students first gave reasons about why equality is valuable and then were asked to defend the converse. Next, the instructors questioned why equality was necessary for the government to function in terms of providing healthcare. Danielle and Travis were vibrantly active in the discussion and contributed on almost every issue. After a brief lunch break, reading group and a lecture, the lab returned to create a word list that would help with researching. Dr. Robinson then demonstrated how to search a term using the database Lexis Nexis. The lab was particularly impressed with how easy researching could be and how much information a mere ten minute search could return. Following another lecture and dinner, the entire camp saw a staff practice debate and returned to lab to discuss their opinion. Overall, the Critical Theory lab brought enthusiasm to the first day.

Scott Robinson

Hello. I am Scott Robinson. I received my PhD in political science in2001 and I am currently on the faculty at the University of Texas atDallas. I have been involved in LD debate since 1990 including servingas an assistant coach at Newman Smith HS in Carrollton, TX from1994-1997 and teaching at the Kentucky National Debate Institute for 7years before joining the Mean Green LD team in 2005. I am excited aboutworking with the lab this year.

Laura De La Cruz

Laura debated for four years at Mayde Creek High School in Houston Texas. Her junior in high school she qualified for the TFA State Tournament in 3 events advancing to octos in LD. Her senior year she won the Memorial tournament, was invited to the Greenhill Round Robin, advanced to quarterfinals at the University of Texas, octo-finals at Grapevine and double-octos at St. Marks. During her four years Laura amassed numerous speaker awards including 1st place at Memorial and Grapevine, and 4th place at St. Marks. Laura is currently a junior at the University of Houston studying sociology and philosophy.

Katherine Thompson

After four years of debate, I am very excited to be a staff member at the excellent Mean Green Lincoln Douglas Workshop. As a debater, I competed for the Greenhill School in Addison, Texas. My senior year, I won the Grapevine Classic and qualified to the Tournament of Champions within the first two tournaments of the year. Although I have enjoyed competitive success both locally and nationally, I believe that debate is more than a contest. Debate is an activity that teaches research skills, critical thinking, public speaking and numerous other valuable lessons. I believe that debate is the most worthwhile activity a student can be involved in. Therefore, I am looking forward to sharing my enthusiasm with the Mean Green Workshop participants.