Ending Famine, Simply by Ignoring the Experts – New York Times

Ending Famine, Simply by Ignoring the Experts – New York Times

Do anti-subsidy advocates count as experts? Since subsidies are a hotly debated subject, it seems the article is confounding a debate winner with an expert. The gist is that fertilizer subsidies (vital to American farming) have been discouraged in Africa under an ideal of free trade and privatization, arguably exacerbating famine risk as indicated by the huge success of Malawi when they decided to embrace subsidies last year.

The “experts” in the title simply represent a journalistic attempt at adding excitement to a tired old storyline. There is no evidence in the article that the issue was anything but a political problem. Those advocates may have been experts on free trade, but they were not experts on farming, fertilizers, or famine prevention. If there was debate, the winner was not decided by any neutral third party.

As much as I would like an article that illustrated a big gaff from the experts, this is not one of them. It raises a question however; how much of the social construction of expertise turns on the same political process?

What Do You Do on Day 1 with Your New Team?

A new speech & debate club started up today at Wexford Montessori Magnet School. I spent an hour working with 13 students and their new teacher/coach, Eric Royston. I was so excited after spending so much time advocating for new clubs in the past year to be seeing one actually getting going, and a lot of it had to do with Eric’s willingness to step up and take charge of it. He visited each classroom at the school to pitch the idea of a speech & debate team, and I think that made a big difference. 13 is a really good number for a first meeting. It bodes well for the other new programs getting started in the coming weeks and months.

We spent time discussing the difference between speech & debate and other competitive activities like soccer, how speech might enable us to have the skills and confidence to make changes in the world. We discussed what sorts of things would be worth changing and why advocating for change can be difficult. We also did a round table debate brainstorming exercise on the topic of whether the school should double its recess time. Health and productivity benefits figured prominently.

It was wonderful interacting with this group. They were very engaged with our discussion and there were always 4-5 hands up ready to make a contribution. The students did a great job and convinced me they are going to be a very successful team in Mid Michigan, a model for other new programs starting up.

Clipboard Recorder – Windows Clipboard Extender

Clipboard Recorder – Windows Clipboard Extender | LW-WORKS

I have been using the basic free version for a few months now. Sadly, many people are thrilled to learn about basic things like ctrl-x, ctrl-c, and ctrl-v in the existing Windows or Mac clipboard, but a clipboard recorder like this one (see link above) is a whole new level of utility. I have been using it in writing, tabulating contact info, etc.

Debaters might really find a clipboard recorder useful in brief construction (just be careful not to forget you are copying direct quotations).  In an electronic source, just copy all the necessary citation elements one at a time (no need to paste anywhere yet), then copy selected quotations.  Finally, inside a word processor, paste the citations elements in, paste the quotations in whatever order you thing makes the most sense and then insert your arguments and paraphrases; this creates a nice grouping of the “cards” that you cut from that source.  Format accordingly, put the whole brief where you need it (file it, put it in Endnote, or whatever you do),  and there you have processed a complete source into a usable form. Now, say you want to make a brief or outline a paper using multiple sources, you can do that too by working from your newly created individual source files or database, copying the cards you want to use, and then pasting them into a new document. If you like working with real paper, just make sure the source citation is on every quotation and you can print your source documents and cut them up into cards.

Grant money for middle school debate

A+ for ENERGY – A BP Energy Education Program

I attended the Middle School Public Debate Program national championships in Claremont last weekend. The above link describes the grant awarded to one of the MSPDP leagues this year for debating about energy. I met the folks involved with this grant, Kelly Beiringer and Greg Paulk of the Desert Valley Debate League, along with numerous other teachers, parents, and students.

I’m working on supporting the creation and development of speech & debate programs in the greater Lansing, MI area. I think the MSPDP example shows the viability and desirability of such programs.

Meaning of argument (Monty Python)

YouTube – Monty Python – Argument Clinic

It’s not easy getting some people to understand that argumentation is a legit field, but this funny bit digs into some of the issues. Thanks to Mike Metcalfe for posting this to ARGTHRY.