Curricular Components 2: Mentorship

Today we’re continuing our ‘Curricular Components’ miniseries within the Curriculum Corner (I blame Marshall for the unnecessary alliteration). This is where we provide an in-depth look at the various elements of VBI’s programming. As Marshall mentioned in the first post, this is not just a description of the individual curricular elements. We will also be looking at the roles these elements play in our overall understanding of camp, and how we think these elements can be improved. Like the previous post, this post will be split into three parts. First, an overview to the curricular element, second a discussion of why the element is important, and third a discussion of some of the challenges and solutions we have been thinking about when crafting the program.This second entry in our Curricular Components miniseries is dedicated to mentorship.

What is Mentorship?

A mentor is a VBI faculty member that is assigned to students to work with one-on-one every other day outside of lab. The mentor program provides continuous feedback and oversight of each student’s personal curriculum since mentors help students achieve their own unique interests and goals. Each mentor session is student driven, with students playing the largest role in determining what each individual mentor session looks like.There is no single type or even best type of mentor session since these sessions are highly individualized and are meant to emphasize the distinctive instructional style of the instructor as well as achieve the specific interests of each individual student. A typical mentor session is half an hour long and can include anything from drills, video analysis, rebuttal redoes, simply talking about debate, to anything in between. The topics covered in each mentor session vary wildly and can be what the instructor believes would be most helpful for a particular student to learn or what the particular student is interested in. For example, with some of the younger students, I liked logic exercises and with older students, I preferred to listen to rebuttal redoes, but many other instructors will approach their mentor sessions differently. Each student will have a unique experience with their mentors and focused one-on-one attention simply not available anywhere else.Each student will also be part of a mentor group of 3-4 students that meets with the mentor every night. Students meet with their mentor group to discuss their progress throughout camp. These mentor groups aim to recreate the feel of a team, with a diverse group of students in terms of experience. The mentor is, in essence, the students’ coach throughout camp, since they will be the staff member that students will likely spend the greatest amount of one-on-one time with throughout camp. They will not only help each student directly by boosting their skills and content knowledge, but they will also help facilitate peer learning by helping students help each other.Students have the ability to request a mentor prior to camp that they feel would best help them attain their debate goals. Many of our staff have strong specializations in specific topics in debate, and students interested in improving in those specific areas, like philosophy, critical, or policy style debating, can select staff members with those specializations. If students choose not to request a mentor prior to camp, mentors will be assigned to students based on that students’ interests and experience.To learn more about mentorship, visit here.

Why Mentorship?

Mentorship has become standard practice at many national debate camps because of the unique benefits it brings to students on top of already established camp practices such as labs and modules. Mentorship has now become almost as foundational to camp curriculum as labs. I think there are three unique reasons why mentorship is an excellent complement and addition to core camp curriculum.First, mentorship is the best source of one-on-one instruction. I talked about this above, but mentorship is the single greatest one-on-one learning that a student can get at camp. Consistent, unfettered access to top debate instructors in the nation can drastically enhance student learning at camp at a rate not previously possible with less one-one-one instruction. There is simply no substitute for individualized instruction at this level. Each student has different skills, interests, and learning styles. To assume that each student will retain the same information from lab as their fellow peers is misguided. One-on-one instruction allows the teaching to be custom tailored to each individual student, an element of personalization simply not possible to achieve to the same level in a lab setting. This is not to say that lab isn’t valuable (which would be silly, as Marshall’s previous post here excellently lays out the importance of lab), but rather that mentorship adds a unique level of instruction that can’t be replicated by lab.Second, mentorship helps students fill in missing gaps from lab or modules. This is related to the above point, but I think especially important to isolate as a unique benefit to mentorship. Because each student learns differently, core skills and content taught in lab will be remembered and interpreted by each student differently. Mentorship helps each individual student retain and utilize that knowledge from lab in their own unique way. Say the lab was covering a particular argument on the camp topic and brainstorming different ways to respond to this argument. Well, each student probably has different thoughts about this argument or may not have understood this argument. Mentorship provides an opportunity to clarify that argument and help the student understand this argument. Students are frequently less willing to voice concerns about their level of understanding in public settings for obvious reasons, so mentorship provides an opportunity for students to fill in this missing information. Additionally, mentorship provides an additional unique perspective on subjects. Lab instructors might think about certain issues differently, and having a mentor to provide additional insight and a different opinion about the issue helps the student learn and grow.Third, mentorship helps facilitate group interactions and peer learning. While lab does provide some opportunity for learning from and teaching other students, an often-overlooked tool in student instruction, peer learning from mentorship is unique because mentors groups are often smaller, more tight-knit, and are united around similar core interests, unlike labs which are often larger and grouped differently. Since mentor groups are encouraged to work together, mentors can help these groups teach and learn from one another.

How Can Mentorship Be Better?

Because mentorship is still a new practice but so valuable to many students, we spend a lot of time thinking about how to make it better. I will mention a few concerns that we have about mentorship and a few suggestions for how it could improve. That being said, mentorship has easily been one of the best advancements in camp curriculum in recent memory and even though there is always room for improvement, we think mentorship is a fantastic part of camp curriculum.First, there is concern of what the optimal way to select mentor groups is. Currently, mentor groups are selected based on what students are interested in and assigning them to a mentor and then grouping those students together so there is a diversity in skill level. However, with some advanced instructors who specialize in teaching very high levels of debate, there is a good chance that they will be requested by only high level debaters. This, I think creates two distinct issues. First, is that younger debaters lose access to certain mentors. Second, it deprives more advanced debaters of the ability to interact and potentially help younger debaters. As of now, there doesn’t appear to be an obvious solution. More experienced debaters should be allowed to request a mentor and there doesn’t appear to be a good reason to deny them the ability to request a mentor on face. Thankfully, this concern doesn’t play out too often as very few instances of this actually occur each year. However, there are still a few things that can happen to minimize this occurrence. Since many more experienced debaters will request multiple instructors, it’s usually possible to still fulfill mentor requests while still having younger students incorporated into a mentor group. It’s also possible for VBI to simply ask for additional mentor requests from students when conflicts occur. In the end, this is a concern worth examining but there doesn’t appear to be an easy answer to this.Second, there is a question of how to balance one-on-one time with mentors and group time with mentors. Currently, the schedule has it so that mentors meet with each student once every other day for half an hour, and every day with the mentor group for approximately half an hour. There are questions of whether there are preferable balances of time. In general, I’m pretty satisfied with our current division of one-on-one time and group time. Allotting more time for one-on-one instruction means more time where other students aren’t able to learn from instructors, and decreasing one-on-one time for group meetings seems even worse given the benefits of one-on-one instruction. Half an hour for group meetings each night also seems sufficient as well for encouraging group cooperation and even having a few group drill sessions if necessary. Additionally, there are times at night where optional late night activities occur that can also be used to meet with mentor groups. In the end, I think our current balance of one-on-one versus group time is pretty good, but certainly we’d like to hear your opinions on this.Third, there is a question of what students do when they’re not being mentored. This isn’t so much a concern as just a question. In the past, students have been free to utilize this time however they want, using it as free time, additional work time, or even listening in on other mentor sessions. This year will be no different in that students will be free to utilize this time however they want, except that there will be additional opportunities for students to learn in the way of student led modules which we briefly talked about here and will be explained in more detail in a later post. We believe that students are capable of managing their own time and can utilize this time in a manner that is best for them. Some students prefer to do more work, while some prefer to take advantage of every learning opportunity, while some simply would appreciate a rest day every so often.Fourth, there is a concern of mentor groups being splintered and not maximizing their potential to be a cohesive unit. Since one of the major advantages to mentorship is the ability to work together with other students of different experience levels, mentor groups that choose not to interact with each other are diminishing the educational potential of mentorship. While we can’t force students to like and work with one another, there are a few solutions to encouraging mentor group cohesiveness. First, mentors need to be proactive in encouraging mentor groups to work together. This can’t merely be a few words about being a team and ending there. This needs to manifest itself in concrete actions, such as eating a few meals with mentor groups to encourage them to work together, actively encouraging cooperation during mentor team meetings, and facilitating meetings with the mentor groups during down time. Second, camp policy will actively promote mentor groups working together by encouraging it during official gatherings, and by constantly encouraging students to work together. These solutions should help increase the likelihood that mentor groups work with one another. Coupled with some of the solutions of how to improve instruction generally from the previous post on labs, and we think that mentorship is going to be great this year!That’s mentorship! I hope you found this overview helpful whether in designing your own camp curriculum, understanding what you would be signing up for at VBI, or helpful in getting inside the heads of the curriculum team (I recommend getting inside Marshall’s head, he has a lot of good ideas in there and he’s certainly more interesting than I). Let us know in the comment section if you have any additional questions about the mentorship system at VBI, or would like to know our thoughts on other aspects of mentorship.

Sam Bonham Explains the Value of VBI PF

My name is Sam Bonham, and I have been involved in Public Forum debate at Southlake Carroll Senior High School for the last 4 years. I attended several other debate camps prior to VBI, but Victory Briefs was the most influential on my career, and I can directly attest to the quality of instruction and value of the habits they instill.

The rigorous curriculum coupled with the instructors’ expertise made for a very challenging experience. There was ample time to practice and drill with some of the best debaters to have competed on the PF circuit. The attention was such that I was working very closely with debaters that I had watched in late our rounds at every national tournament of the season. At no other camp do you work with instructors who coached a TOC closeout, won the International Public Policy Forum, and accumulated upwards of 60 bids on a variety of different circuits.

I learned the most from the mentor program. As a camper, you are assigned to a mentor, who will meet with you one on one on a regular basis for the duration of the camp. This system gives you a unique opportunity to share argument ideas, strategy considerations, and anything that’s on your mind during VBI. My partner and I generated some of our best ideas during brainstorming sessions with our mentors.

At Socrates Hour, which is unique to VBI, every instructor gathers in a  common area at the end of the day to answer any question that a camper  may have had during the day’s instruction.  It allowed for instructors that  campers might not have interacted with regularly to share their expertise  and created a system in which nobody was scared to speak out and share  their thoughts. I remember being stuck for a few days on what strategy we  wanted to go with for the Con case we were writing on the probable cause  topic. After picking lab leaders and other staffers’ brains for their ideas on  the resolution, Kyle Chong and others helped us think of the case idea that secured us victory at the camp tournament, and multiple bids to the  TOC during the months of September and October.

The instructors at camp went beyond what they were required to do in order to ensure that we’d improved the most we could over the course of camp. They judged and even competed in practice rounds after hours, meaning that you could debate with some of the best college-aged talent in the country. This gave me a first-hand look into what it’s like to not only debate with someone who wasn’t my regular partner, but someone who has new ideas and new ways of articulating the arguments that I had written. After watching the semifinals of the TOC not 3 months prior to camp, I gained a lot of admiration for a number of staffers who had been very successful on the national circuit. At VBI, I debated rounds with them as my teammates, which was really a surreal experience. It gave me a new perspective on debate because I had only competed with my regular partner up to that point.

"The rigorous curriculum coupled with the instructors’ expertise made for a very challenging experience. There was ample time to practice and drill with some of the best debaters to have competed on the PF circuit." - Sam Bonham

The lab system at VBI was also top notch. The curriculum was designed to push our buttons. I found it frustrating that our lab leaders made it easy for our peers to prep out our cases, but I used that frustration as motivation, which translated into more prep. We were honestly more ready to debate the camp topic than any topic in the past.Top talent should absolutely attend VBI. VBI is still innovating and making strides to improve the experience for campers year after year. Many camps get stuck in the same traditional curricular routine (where lectures play a featured role) and there is limited individualized assistance. The opposite is true of VBI. In my time as a camper I felt as if the instructors got to know me well enough that they could tailor the lessons and instruction to my specific needs. After learning the basics, the nation’s top talent can really benefit from learning more about the complex nuances of debate, and in my experience, VBI communicates those lessons best. VBI is not for the faint of heart. The work is intense, the hours are long, and the instructors have high expectations.For students who really want to see their debating skills improve, this is definitely the place to be.More information about VBI including staff, dates, and curriculum details available here. 

Words of Wisdom 2: From Sophistry to Skepticism

This post continues from my last Words of Wisdom post where I discussed a passage in which Plato warns against teaching youth how to argue. (It seems to me that if someone as insightful as Plato warns us that our entire activity is dangerous we should attend closely to the concern.)In the previous post, I talked about the danger of developing the vice of vainglory. In this post, I will approach Plato’s warning from a different direction. Last time I skipped over a paragraph in my Plato excerpt (marked by the ellipsis), and I now want to return to what I skipped over. In the excised passage Plato says, of youth who have been taught to argue, that

“. . . when they've refuted many and been refuted by them in turn, they forcefully and quickly fall into disbelieving what they believed before. And, as a result, they themselves and the whole of philosophy are discredited in the eyes of others.” (539b-c)

Plato cautions that by teaching students how to argue we incline them towards a pernicious skepticism. This skepticism, in turn, draws them away from the love and pursuit of wisdom and truth.Why think this is true?To answer that question we are going to have to look at another, and my favorite, of Plato’s dialogues: The Gorgias.Plato starts the dialogue with a discussion about the nature of ‘rhetoric.’ What we might define, preliminarily, as the ‘art of verbal persuasion.’ Rhetoricians, like Gorgias, use words and arguments to persuade an audience. It is plausible that rhetoric, in this sense, is the primary skill taught and developed by competitive debate. To use debate jargon, rhetoric is very close to the idea of ‘advocacy skills.’ It allows one to change the minds of others, and so in that process, it allows one to change the world. Indeed, Gorgias makes this very point; Gorgias argues that rhetoric is the greatest of all arts because it empowers one to make a difference in the world.

“What is there greater than the word which persuades the judges in the courts, or the senators in the council, or the citizens in the assembly, or at any other political meeting? . . . Let me offer you a striking example of this. On several occasions I have been with my brother Herodicus or some other physician to see one of his patients, who would not allow the physician to give him medicine, or apply the knife or hot iron to him; and I have persuaded him to do for me what he would not do for the physician just by the use of rhetoric. And I say that if a rhetorician and a physician were to go to any city, and had there to argue in the Ecclesia or any other assembly as to which of them should be elected state-physician, the physician would have no chance; but he who could speak would be chosen if he wished; and in a contest with a man of any other profession the rhetorician more than any one would have the power of getting himself chosen, for he can speak more persuasively to the multitude than any of them, and on any subject. Such is the nature and power of the art of rhetoric!” (452e, 456a-c)

It would seem hard to deny the truth of this claim. There is a power that comes with learning to debate well. It is a power over the hearts and minds of others, and this is turn means it is a power over the actions that others take. However, the very power of rhetoric raises a worry for Plato.To understand the worry, it will be useful to look at an analogy of Plato’s between rhetoric and food. Some food is good for us and some food is bad for us. There is an excellency in food that relates to a primary human good, namely health, and that excellency is nutrition. A doctor will be able to tell you what food is good for you, and so provide advice that, if followed, will draw you towards goodness. Thus, Plato says that the art proper to food is nutrition because that is the art that pursues food’s primary good. We can contrast the art of nutrition with the technique of cookery. When one learns to cook well they learn how to make food attractive. It tastes good. Now this is a very different kind of good. Certainly, you will be more inclined to eat food that tastes good, but just because it tastes good does not mean that it will be nutritious. Plato says the following (this translation uses medicine rather than nutrition):

“Cookery simulates the disguise of medicine, and pretends to know what food is the best for the body; and if the physician and the cook had to enter into a competition in which children were the judges, . . . as to which of them best understands the goodness or badness of food, the physician would be starved to death.” (464d-e)

Socrates argues that this parallels rhetoric. The fact that you can persuade someone with clever or strategic arguments does not mean that what you persuade them of will be right. Rhetoric allows you to convince people something is true (truth being the chief good proper to inquiry), but it has the power to do so whether what you convince them of is true or not. So just as cookery can be used to obscure the goods taught by nutrition science, so too rhetoric and advocacy skills can be used to obscure truth and justice.It is dangerous to one’s health to learn how to make food tasty before one learns how to make food healthy, A fortiori it is extremely dangerous to train people in how to make whatever position they are already inclined to appear true before they learn how to first find the truth.There is a deep danger of self-deception. For example, I can easily ‘out argue’ many of my friends and acquaintances at church, after all, I have been involved in debate for about a decade. However, the fact that I will win an argument with them does not mean that the positions I am arguing are the true ones. I will win the argument, frankly, whether my position is right or wrong.And so here we have the danger. I am not particularly wise. There are still a lot of important truths I need to learn about how to live the good life. Many of those truths will be unpleasant to face. I don’t want to recognize my own failings. I don’t want to go from vegetarian to vegan. I don’t want to give up any more of my income to those in desperate need. I don’t want to be wrong. How many of these things am I convinced are not true, not because they are not true, but just because I am better at arguing than those who try to speak truth to me?Thus, one danger of learning to argue is that I insulate myself from the insight of those who are wiser than I. My own moral development can stagnate, I can secure my ignorance against any onslaught because I can make even my false beliefs seem true to myself and others.Nor is the danger merely that I will be morally static. There is also a danger of moral regression. I may have grown up believing that lying is wrong. But there are times when I would really rather it not be wrong. I am scared sometimes at how effectively I can rationalize the choice to give up on things that once seemed both true and obvious.The danger in learning advocacy skills stems from our brokenness. And given this brokenness it is far easier to abuse advocacy skills than it is to use them.None of this is to say that rhetoric is bad. Rhetoric is powerful and transformative. Rhetoric can be used to direct people towards radical and world-transforming truths. Where would the civil rights movement have been without rhetoric?  What would Wilberforce have accomplished if he did not know how to speak? Who would still be reading Plato if he did not know how to convey powerfully and clearly insight and truth?Rhetoric can help get truth inside of us, just as cookery can help make even kale taste good (well maybe not kale, but at least things like brussels sprouts). But there is a danger, a great danger in learning rhetoric while we are young. The danger is that when we learn to argue before we learn to love and know the truth, then argument may enable us to construct and impenetrable edifice of attractively argued lies.What then are we to do?I don’t think the solution is to stop teaching high schoolers debate. Debate is too transformative, debate is too valuable. But we need to keep in mind this danger. We need to make sure that tech does not trump truth. We need to make sure that strategy does not swamp sagacity.And most of all we need to learn to be epistemically humble. We need to learn how to use rhetoric against ourselves. You need to remember that just because you won an argument which shows you did nothing wrong, that does not mean you are in the right. Use rhetoric to bolster the wisdom of others rather than reinforce the ignorance of yourself.Plato puts this point beautifully, and so like last post, I will bookend this piece with passages of Plato:

“Then rhetoric is of no use to us . . . in helping a man to excuse his own injustice, . . . but may be of use to any one who holds that instead of excusing he ought to accuse—himself above all, and in the next degree his family or any of his friends who may be doing wrong; he should bring to light the iniquity and not conceal it, that so the wrong-doer may suffer and be made whole; and he should even force himself and others not to shrink, but with closed eyes like brave men to let the physician operate with knife or searing iron, not regarding the pain, in the hope of attaining the good and the honourable; . . . himself being the first to accuse himself and his own relations, and using rhetoric to this end, that his and their unjust actions may be made manifest, and that they themselves may be delivered from injustice, which is the greatest evil. Then . . . rhetoric would indeed be useful.” (480e-481b)

Announcing the Victory Briefs AMA!

Victory Briefs is excited to announce the Victory Briefs Institute (VBI) AMA! We know many of you have questions about camp, ranging from reasons to attend VBI to questions about time during camp itself. Directors of debate, parents, and students have many questions about camp and we're here to answer them! We also hope this serves as an opportunity for us to hear your questions and concerns about debate camps so we can improve camp for everyone!The AMA will be hosted on the r/Debate subreddit here on Saturday, April 15th. Public Forum and Lincoln-Douglas debaters, coaches, and parents alike can ask questions!The AMA will feature the Lincoln-Douglas and Public Forum curriculum directors (more information can be found about the curricular staff here). You can either ask questions on the AMA thread directly when the AMA happens or, if you don't have a Reddit account or would prefer to contact us some other way, you can also email us at lawrence@victorybriefs.com and we will post your questions on Reddit and answer them there.We know that selecting a summer debate institute is a difficult choice and we're here so you can have direct access to the curriculum team. Hope to see you this summer at a session of the Victory Briefs Institute!Learn more about the Victory Briefs Institute here.

Curricular Components 1: Lab

In the ‘Curricular Components’ miniseries within the Curriculum Corner (ok, even I admit that is too much alliteration in one sentence) we are going to provide an in-depth look at the various elements of VBI’s programming. This will not just be a description of the individual curricular elements. We will also look at what role those elements play in our overall understanding of camp, and how we think these elements can be improved.  So, this post will be split into three parts. First, an overview to the curricular element, second a discussion of why the element is important, and third a discussion of some of the challenges and solutions we have been thinking about when crafting the program. 

This first entry in our Curricular Components miniseries is dedicated to lab.

What is Lab?

Those who have been to a debate camp before almost certainly know what ‘lab’ is. It is the most ubiquitous element across debate camps. Every camp I have taught at has sorted students and instructors into labs, at least during their main session. If you are new to debate camp though, then hopefully this explanation will give you a better idea of what your time at debate camp will be like (no matter what camp you are at).

Labs are, in some ways, like a class in high-school. Students are divided into groups of 8-12 and those groups are paired with 2 or 3 instructors, called lab leaders (we match up instructors so that our 1:4 staff to student ratio is reflected within the individual labs). Students spend a good portion of each day with their lab, and thus lab really becomes the central curricular element of a student’s time at camp. Practice rounds are organized within and between labs. Lab leaders are the instructors in charge of assigning case writing and homework. Lab is the context where debaters spend the most time developing core debate skills, learning technical concepts and grasping debate strategy.

Labs differ from a classroom, however, in not being lecture based. Rather than focusing on lectures, labs focus on things like drills, practice rounds and discussions. That is the reason we maintain a 1:4 ratio in labs: it ensures that lab leaders can split up the lab and work with students in more focused and individualized ways. 

Why Lab?

Given that just about every debate camp uses the lab system, it must be important. One reason lab is so important is that labs are ‘foundational’ to most of the curriculum. 

First, labs are pedagogically foundational: labs ensure students develop those core debate skills which are key to scaffolding what they learn in elective studies. Second, labs are socially foundational: students spend more time with their labbies than any other group and thus, normally, build their closest friendships in lab. Third, labs are competitively foundational: for example, each lab forms their own ‘Omegathon’ team for daily interlab competitions (be it a ‘pub quiz night,’ a limbo competition, or a contest to see which lab creates the best lab cheer). Fourth, labs are logistically foundational: we require lab leaders to track attendance, ensuring we know where students are.

Labs are also important because they allow us to more directly specialize the curriculum to meet the needs of every student. We group labs based on a host of characteristics including skill level, age and interest (more on that below) and this allows lab leaders to customize the curriculum so it meets the needs of individual students. Lab leaders tailor what content to cover and at what level based on the skill sets of their students. They can assign homework, such as case writing, in a way that considers the experience and interests of their students. Much of a camp’s curriculum, such as what modules to offer, is set at the level of the whole camp. Lab, however, allows major parts of the curriculum to be set at the level of the individual student.

A final, and important, feature to lab is that it provides a ‘team’ dynamic to the camp experience. Debate camp is about more than teaching students content, it’s also about teaching students how to better teach themselves during the year. But students, for the most part, won’t work alone during the year. Most students will prep and learn with a team. Thus, lab provides students a picture of how they can work with 7-11 other students to effectively prep and collectively improve.

How Can Lab be Better?

Because lab is so foundational to the VBI curriculum, we spend a lot of time thinking about how to make it better. I want to mention three problems that we have been thinking about/discussing as curriculum directors. The first problem is that it is difficult to be sure what the optimal way to group students is, the second is that it is difficult to balance lab leader specialization and the third is the problem of instructional redundancy.

Lab Grouping

There is a temptation to group students just based on a rough judgment of relative experience. You put the top twelve most experienced debaters together, then the next twelve most experienced debaters and so on, until everyone is sorted.

While I understand why camps are tempted towards this system, it is, after all, the fastest way to organize students, it turns out to be too rough to produce effective groupings.

Indeed, this doesn’t even really allow you to group students by similar skill levels. Two debaters with similar records could be in completely different places for every specific debate skill. If one debater reads plans and theory a lot, and another does almost exclusively framework debate you might end up having debaters who have similar tournament experience needing to learning entirely different sets of ‘basics.’ If you ask most lab leaders who have taught an ‘intermediate’ lab at camp, they will surely tell you that often they need to cover all the basics because while every kid knows a lot of the basics, none of the basics is known by every kid. So, two kids in the room require you to cover the basics of theory, two require you to cover the basics of plan debate, etc. Now, good lab leaders can deal with this problem by dividing up the lab to work on these skills, and by teaching the basics in ways that provide a helpful review for the more experienced debaters, but it does show that there is something problematic about merely organizing labs around rough judgements of skill.

There are at least two other things that it is important to consider when grouping labs.

First, you need to consider how different students flourish in different learning environments. Because of my dyslexia, I am a strongly auditory learner. When I read a book for school, I need to have my computer read the book aloud to me, otherwise I won’t process it well. Some students, when trying to learn a skill like answering theory, will find it especially helpful to see an example of a technique well executed; others, like myself, have difficulty translating examples into practice and find it easier to learn about a technique through discussion.  Some debaters, in turn, lose focus during discussions, while others lose focus during individualized work-time. Grouping students, at least partially, based on the sort of environment in which they learn best can pay real dividends.  (Note: talk of ‘learning styles’ needs to be qualified.  While a significant amount of academic literature argues that different people learn in different ways there is reason to think that the influence of learning styles has been over stated. Additionally, the academic consensus seems to be that everyone learns best by mixing up lots of different learning styles, so instructors must be carefully not to overemphasis one way of teaching just because of a stated preference of the lab.) 

Second, it is important to consider student’s interests when grouping labs. Most instructors can relay a time when they asked their labs what they wanted to cover the last few days of camp and got a different answer from every student. This problem will always exist to some extent, but it can be lessened if one considers interest, along with learning styles and experience, as a relevant criterion for lab placement.  Another advantage to grouping students by interest is that it helps internally regulate student attention. Most students can attend for longer to things they are interested in, which means the more students share interests the easier it is to ensure breaks in instruction occur at the right time for every student involved.

Obviously, once one considers learning styles, interest and experience as all important features of student groupings it takes a really long time to group students into labs. Still, it pays off with far more cohesive learning environments.

A second way that VBI is trying to improve lab grouping is through a voluntary opt-in lab system that we will beta test this summer at VBI Swarthmore. The change would shift emphasis away from similar experience levels and focus more on areas of student interest. Last year I argued at length for this proposal, and so if you would like to get an idea of what the system would look like you can check out the post. (Note: you would only be considered for the program if you actively opt-in.)

Lab Leader Specialization

Because lab leaders are so influential in their labbies' education at camp, there can sometimes be a worry that the interests and specializations of lab leaders translates into an unbalanced education for their students. Even when you are hiring extremely talented staffers it remains the case that people cannot be experts at everything. I know LD debate quite well, but there are still parts of it which I would happily acknowledge I am not super qualified to teach. I don’t think this means I am not a worthwhile hire for a debate camp (it would be strange if I did think that), instead it just means that I, along with the camps I am at, need to ensure that there are ways to balance out my specializations.

There are several ways to combat the problem of lab leader specialization. The first is to ensure that lab leaders balance one another. Because I am better at teaching analytic philosophy and stock contention debate it makes sense to pair me with an instructor who is better at teaching either policy style or K style debate. This helps ensure that students get a more balanced perspective from their instructors. That alone, however, does not alleviate the problem. For example, suppose we want to split up for drills answering a K, it might still be that I am just not as qualified to give useful feedback at responding to Ks as many other instructors at the camp are.

Thus, VBI is working on an ‘instructor exchange’ program to institute this summer. If my lab needs an instructor with a particular specialization, then we could put that information on the exchange (at the same time mentioning the areas of specialization our instructors have). Then, labs can coordinate an instructor swap for a lab session or two. I have used this technique informally before and found it quite helpful, by providing a formal mechanism we can ensure each lab can benefit. This is not the only way to solve this problem; an alternative and very effective solution is the rotation system developed at TDC (honestly, I don’t know which would be better, the reason I want to try out this system is to provide more flexibility to instructors in picking when and for how long swaps occur as well as maintaining more  instructional continuity by not swapping all the instructors in a lab).

Instructional Redundancy

A third danger with labs is that you risk one instructor not having much to add for some parts of lab and thus tuning out. If I am teaching students about Kantian philosophy, my fellow instructors might not feel like they have much to add to the discussion (though this is almost never true, debaters will have to explain philosophy to people who do not specialize in it, so getting alternative perspectives even in those contexts is helpful). This is a real worry, it sends a bad message to students when instructors tune out and it damages the instructional setting by depriving students of a plurality of perspectives.

The easiest part of solving this problem occurs at the level of camp policy. VBI, like most camps, is very explicit that instructors should be engaged at all times with instructional activities in lab. Similarly, VBI insists that labs focus on things like discussions and drills rather than lectures (which decreases opportunities for instructors to tune out).

However, these solutions are never perfect, and the reason they are not perfect is just because teaching is hard. We are all only human and after weeks and weeks of debate camp everyone (myself included) has difficulty focusing. The other prong of VBI’s solution, therefore, is instructor training and care. VBI places a big emphasis on instructor training, we provide instructors with opportunities to have their lab sessions observed to allow future brainstorming with curriculum directors of ways to resolve problems developing in lab. We have great instructors, but there is always space to further develop in one’s teaching skills.  Thus, VBI tries to emphasize teaching training to empower instructors with additional solutions to problems like instructional redundancy (an example of a technique I like to employ is splitting up into mini discussion groups with one lab leader a piece and then bringing those discussion groups together later for a whole lab discussion, this tends to improve both student and instructor attention).

VBI has also spent a lot of time this year discussing ways to improve our instructor care. We are developing a program to give instructors time off to recharge if they are working at multiple sessions. Similarly, we put a lot of work into designing our daily schedule to ensure instructors can get plenty of time to sleep and relax allowing them to be alert and focused during all instructional periods.

That’s Lab! I hope you found this overview helpful whether in designing your own camp curriculum, understanding what you would be signing up for at VBI, or helpful in getting inside my head (not sure why you would want to do that, but who knows). Let us know in the comment section if you have any additional questions about the lab system at VBI, or would like to know our thoughts on other aspects of the lab system.

How to Maximize Your Time at Debate Camp!

This next installment of the Curriculum Corner is to get to know some of our instructors better and see their insights into how to maximize your time at debate camp this summer! Today, we’re talking with five VBI staff members about their thoughts in improving at debate camp, each sharing their unique perspective on camp.Priya Kukreja debated for four years at Millard North High School in Omaha, Nebraska. This will be her first year as an instructor at VBI.Raffi Piliero debated for Harrison High School in New York for four years. He attended VBI as a student twice and this will be his first year as an instructor at VBI.Margaret Purcell debated for Northland Christian School in Houston, TX for four years. She attended VBI as a student and this will be her first year as an instructor at VBI.Martin Sigalow is a debate coach and teacher at Lake Highland Preparatory School in Florida. This will be his second year as an instructor at VBI.Kathy Wang debated at Stuyvesant High School in New York. She attended VBI as a student and this will be her second year as an instructor at VBI.For more information about our amazing staff, including the ones featured in this post, visit here.

Q: Most of our instructors have been to camp before as a student including you. What have your previous camp experiences been like and what did you like most about camp?

Kathy: I really enjoyed VBI as a student! After all, some of the people I met and was in a lab with at my first VBI ever are still my best friends today. I think VBI balanced the need for a high-intensity academic setting with the ability to relax and have fun in a very healthy way, which was helpful for me because I never learned well in environments that were only intensely competitive. The overall positive nature of VBI is really underrated in terms of what a debate camp should look like. You can easily choose to have a rigorous camp schedule filled with drills and practice if you want, of course, but success at VBI was never forced upon me as a standard for learning. I think that, coupled with instructors who were accountable and caring outside of pure results, made VBI the one debate environment I had hardly any anxiety in throughout 4 years as a competitor.Martin: Free work time with instructors. Low teacher/student ratios were the best for growth. I learned about different argument types and how to deploy them, which gave me a certain level of expertise One-on-one time was keyPriya: Debate camp is a challenging experience, but that’s often why it’s so effective. Camp was definitely stressful for me the first year. It felt like my lab leaders opened up my brain, dumped in a lot of information and jargon, and expected me to know it all. But I came out knowing exponentially more than I did before. My favorite part about camp were the communities and relationship I built with other debaters. Debate is cool. Debaters are cool. And camp is definitely really cool because it’s rare that you get three weeks to be around people that act and think in the way you do.Margaret: Camp is really what you make of it, so it is important that you are staying focused during your time at VBI or any camp that you decide to go to. All of my camp experiences have been unique in their own ways because of the way I allocated time for different subjects. I find that the more plugged in I am at the camp, the more I do well. The friendships that I have made at camp are what I love most about camps, especially VBI because it fosters a community and family feel.Raffi: For me, what I found most helpful about camp is the emphasis on drills and practicing skills. The amount of practice rounds and speeches given in lab helped to improve my technical skills and my confidence in being able to execute any strategy in any given round. That way, during the year if a situation comes up that I’m not super familiar with, I can know that I’ve done drills and speeches that are similar to what I’ve worked on at camp.

Q: You’ve been to debate camp before and now you’re teaching at VBI for your first year out. What advice would you give to your younger self when they attended camp for the first time?

Margaret: While you're at debate camp, try to only focus on being at camp. Don't let things outside of camp distract you, while you are there, you are there to better yourself and learn more about debate as a whole. Some of the assignments can be hard and stressful, but always try to compete them to the best of your abilities. Your lab leaders know what is best for you, so trust what they can do to help you get better at debate.Raffi: I wish that I had done a better job of allocating my time spent at camp. Too often in my first year I spent time inside just researching the camp topic, instead of focusing on more general skills; it’s often the case that the camp topic isn’t used during the year, so focusing on skills that will apply regardless of the topic is something that I regret not focusing more on.Priya: My first year at camp was one of the most stressful experiences of my life, but it was also one of the most beneficial. If you’re a new camper, make sure to reach out to lab leaders and focus on learning. There’s no other time in the year when you’re going to have access to the type of people and resources that you do at VBI, so take advantage of them.

Q: You all have taught at VBI before! Now that you’ve worked at VBI before, what advice would you tell students who are newcomers to debate?

Kathy: A lot of campers can get pretty shy and hesitant to drill, perform, or reach out to instructors at first. Honestly, I was included in that category more often than not, but I found that going out on a limb and being open made camp life much easier. Of course, that doesn’t mean going into camp with absolutely no game plan – it’s definitely important to identify skillsets you want to improve in – but the point of camp is to expose you to new material and ideas. Being a friendly face and being active instead of passive when learning helps massively. Camp is the one time of the year that debaters have such a diverse set of instructors with experience to help with general skills, so it’s important to be able to use that time. Plus, people are honestly less scary than they seem once you get to know them, and everyone wants more friends. Every time I was embarrassed to reach out, instructors and mentors have just wanted to help more than focus on whatever flaws. I promise they won’t remember or judge if you mess up. Everyone has.Martin: I would tell myself to seek alternate perspectives. Every year I went to camp I became caught up in the fads of that camp. If I had been more open-minded earlier that would have been better. Also, actually do drills. They suck, but there's a real extreme upper limit on how good you can be without it.

Q: Debate camp can be really tiring and an overwhelming experience for students, especially the younger students. What do you think campers should know for surviving debate camp?

Priya: Take it easy. Camp is supposed to be a learning experience, not a competition. Young debaters often get worried about the camp tournament, but it’s better to focus on expanding your debate abilities. Doing well at the camp tournament literally means nothing. Instead of prioritizing short term success, think big - focus instead on bettering your strategies and trying things you otherwise wouldn’t do. And of course, make friends, have fun, meme sufficiently, etc.Kathy: Yeah, debate camp is super overwhelming. I think campers should remember that everyone’s been through this process and understands how stressful it is, so they shouldn’t be afraid to reach out if they ever need help. Nobody’s story in debate is struggle-free. Even if it feels super isolating and impossible, there are certainly people who understand what it feels like who’ll be there for you. Keeping that in mind is super important. Approaching people like instructors doesn’t necessarily always have to be for academic purposes, and I absolutely promise that if any campers need to talk about just managing anxiety, instructors and lab leaders would understand. Debate is honestly a very psychological activity and is really stressful just by definition of being a competitive extracurricular. I honestly can’t stress enough how vital it is to have a good support network in the activity – who knows how early I would’ve quit debate had it not been for mine – and so if it’s possible at all, campers should make sure they have one too, no matter who it is. I’m always available if anyone needs to just let off steam about how draining debate might be.Margaret: Be efficient! One of the things that I would always do is put off my work. If you’re in a work heavy lab, don't spend the first half of the night watching netflix/tv, but prioritize finishing your work. That saves your sleeping schedule and ensures that you're focusing on debate! Sleep is vital, especially if you're doing 3 weeks of camp, no one is too cool for sleep.Raffi: The important thing is to put yourself out there. The instructors may seem intimidating at first, but they’re there to help and are genuinely interested in your improvement. It’s imperative to take initiative and walk up to staff members and ask questions/work with them. It’s also really helpful to work with staff members who you don’t have access to during the year; they can offer information that you might not be as familiar with and help.Martin: Play games, rather than watch TV, if you can. Take frequent breaks; you deserve it. Hang out with friends and the time will fly by.

Q: Every year, there are articles published about making the most of your time at debate camp and they offer a wide range of advice. What is the single best tip you have for making the most of your camp experience at VBI?

Raffi: Make an effort to meet new people. VBI offers the chance to be at a camp that pulls from all areas of the country, and meeting new people is valuable throughout life. This isnt just a tip to make debate more fun, but also crucial for competitive success. Meeting different people allows you to reach out to them at a tournament for information on what other people are reading/judges, which provides important information that helps with tournaments.Margaret: Focus in on areas that you are weak in, but still allow time for what you are best at! Find a lab leader that is very good at something your bad at and make them your person; work with them until you feel like you have a better understanding of the material.Kathy: The biggest tip I have is to avoid burnout. Learning when you’re exhausted and just not up for it won’t be helpful learning. A lot of people skip out on downtime or mealtime to prep 24/7, which besides being really unhealthy, won’t help you really retain the information or work after you shove it into your head. Just because you’re at debate camp doesn’t mean you need food, water, and sleep any less than you normally would. You can’t really be a robot for 2 or 3 weeks. Know your limits, know what kind of learning works best for you and don’t be afraid to ask for it, and be self-aware as to when you’re actually absorbing knowledge and when it’s going in one ear and out the other. Continuously thinking broadly as to what camp’s been giving you in the long run and how what you’re doing right now either contributes to or detracts from that will help make an overall effective camp session.Martin: This is the only place where you get, unrestricted by the ties of school allegiance, to ask any number of instructors whatever you want. Take advantage of all the different people around you, and work your heart out. Explore different things and do what you want to doPriya: Fake it til’ you make it. Most people act like they understand more than they actually do, so don’t be afraid to ask question. Being inquisitive and focusing on learning, as opposed to seeming bad in front of lab mates, is going to be a lot more helpful in the long run.

Q: Any final thoughts to share with us?

Martin: The key to a good debate camp is an open and welcome intellectual atmosphere. That means there isn't shunning by high level instructors of specific ideas or debate styles. That puts kids on ideological rails and creates a stultifying intellectual atmosphere where people don't feel free to do what they want to do. The key key key thing to do is to direct people to teach kids what they want to learn, or send them to someone that can. Kids should have an unrestricted, socially or otherwise, space to pursue interesting thoughts, even if you disagree with those thoughts.Margaret: The most important thing about camp is that you try to enjoy yourself. If you are having a miserable time or are really down on yourself, you are not going to gain the skill that you could have if you kept an open mind. Be open to learning and what lab leaders have to say because they only want the best for you.Kathy: I have both a pub quiz and an Omegathon champion title to defend from my first year out alone, and I am dead set on doing so in case any of you get funny ideas.

Words of Wisdom: Plato Beyond the Platitudes by Marshall Thompson

In a curious passage of The Republic, Plato issues the following warning:

“And isn't it one lasting precaution not to let them taste arguments while they're young? I don't suppose that it has escaped your notice that, when young people get their first taste of arguments, they misuse it by treating it as a kind of game of contradiction. They imitate those who've refuted them by refuting others themselves, and, like puppies, they enjoy dragging and tearing those around them with their arguments. . . . 

But an older person won't want to take part in such madness. He'll imitate someone who is willing to engage in discussion in order to look for the truth, rather than someone who plays at contradiction for sport. He'll be more sensible himself and will bring honor rather than discredit to the philosophical way of life.” (539a-d)

I have been thinking about this passage a lot recently. In these few lines, Plato has captured with piercing clarity an important feature of human nature. I think this insight is worth dwelling on in the context of debate. The worry, as applied to debate, would go something like this:

Debate is an extremely valuable activity. It has the potential to train students to research, reason, and advocate in life-transforming ways. Debate bestows abilities of remarkable value. Abilities, such as the ability to advocate for oneself and others, sift through complexity to find truth, and to explain that truth to others, are remarkably valuable, especially in the world we currently live in. We develop these skills through competitive argumentation, yet it is also a lot of fun to win. The result is that it is easy to be tempted away from regarding winning arguments as a means to the end of effective and ethical advocacy and begin to see winning arguments as an end in itself.

Now this, on its own, would not be all that big a deal. There is nothing wrong with enjoying winning at debate, and indeed it is when you really put your effort into winning that debate is best able to teach you those valuable abilities. However, when I reflect on my own life, I recognize a far more pernicious danger lurking in my values and desires. I don’t just enjoy winning debate tournaments; the love of winning, for me, has sunk deeper. I often get pleasure not just from winning debates, but also from winning an argument with a friend or my parents. If I listen to a philosophy lecture I need to watch myself, because it’s far too easy to me for to ask a question that I know will ‘stump’ the lecturer rather than a question that will meaningfully advance the dialogue and help us collaboratively come to truth. When I’m arguing with someone in my philosophy class, I may find myself making arguments that are less true than I could make them, because if I were fully honest it might reveal a flaw in my own position.

I don’t know how general this experience is, but I doubt I am the only debater who has been tempted to this love of winning. And this is a real moral danger. Argument in real life is a means to an end, the end of finding the truth, therefore, it is pernicious when I feel tempted to pursue the argument at the cost of the truth.

Indeed, when I’m being honest with myself, I must recognize this vice is deeper still. It is not just that I love the argument over the truth, but I descend further down into the far more intoxicating and heady love of my own success, intelligence and reputation. There is a danger in debate. A danger that, in getting perhaps the best training possible to teach us to pursue the truth, we also get drawn away from love of the truth. That we get drawn down into the love of our own ideas, not because we love the way they participate in the truth, but because they reveal our cleverness, our originality and our liberal credentials.

This is not a reason we should not engage in debate. I believe firmly in the life-transforming power of debate; I may in a later post on Curriculum Corner explain how debate transformed my life. But it is a danger that we need to take seriously. And to understand how we should take it seriously I think it will be useful to generalize the problem and note how this is a danger in most human activities. There is, I take it, a general problem of which Plato was emphasizing a particular manifestation.

There are many goods that it is worthwhile for us to pursue. There is beauty pursued in art, there is truth pursued in dialogue, there is friendship pursued in community, there is education pursued in teaching, there is love pursued in relationships, there is understanding pursued in thinking, there is self-knowledge pursued in reflection, there is wisdom pursued in philosophy. To each of these good ends there are means proper and appropriate to them. However, it is one of the great graces of our world (I believe it is one of the great graces of God but need not insist on that here) that the proper pursuit of good ends is itself pleasurable. When one tries to capture beauty in painting there is joy that one can find in the act of painting itself. When one pursues the truth through dialogue there is great enjoyment in that discussion. Certainly, at times it can be difficult and painful (all debaters know times when they would rather sleep than keep working), but nevertheless there is a pleasure to good things properly pursued.

However, one danger of this grace is that we can easily get pulled away from the good of the end and instead become fixated on the pleasure of the means. I have artistic friends who assure me that there are dangers of this sort in music and painting. I have scientific friends who tell me there are similar dangers in the study of physics. All I can speak on authoritatively, though, is the way this danger has manifested in the major areas of my life. I have experienced directly the temptation to look like the good liberal rather than sacrifice for the marginalized (pursuit of justice). I have experienced directly the temptation to win the discussion rather than advance us towards truth (debate). I have experienced directly the temptation to assert ideas I think are clever rather than dwell in patience to come to yet wiser understanding (philosophy).  I have experienced directly the temptation to show off my understanding of God rather than love and be loved by Him (religion).

Ancient and medieval thinkers had a name for this danger, though it’s a word that has fallen out of fashionable use.  What I have been describing in such a roundabout way is nothing more, nor less, than the vice ‘vainglory.’ The vice that Rebecca DeYoung, in her book Glittering Vices, describes as “the excessive and disordered desire for recognition and approval from others.” In reading DeYoung’s account of vainglory, I think that it is likely a vice particularly prevalent amongst debaters. Debaters tend to be extremely talented and highly successful people. In many ways I think that debate encourages important moral improvement and transformation. But the thing about vainglory is that often, the ‘better’ a person you are, the more that you are susceptible to the vice. DeYoung explains it this way: “the more progress we make, and the more virtue we attain, the more we have for others to notice and admire. And if we lack an audience, we are often happy to supply the part ourselves.”

Now that we know more generally the nature of the danger I think it is easier to know what sort of strategies there are to counteract it. Here I will mention just two:

First, I have found that, in my own life, a conscious awareness of the temptation to vainglory has helped me to combat it. By being on the lookout for vainglory cropping up, it helps me catch myself before I ask the ‘stumping question’ or say something that obscures the truth in the hope to bring applause. Just giving the tendency a name, and recognizing it as the name of a vice is helpful. Now, this on its own is not enough. One reason for this is the fact that one can be vainglorious about one’s own recognition of vainglory (indeed, I worry that my own writing of this post is at least partially motivated in that way). John Cassian, the great religious mystic, describes the problem of vainglory “as like that of an onion, and of those bulbs which when stripped of one covering you find to be sheathed in another; and as often as you strip them, you find them still protected. . . . this [vice] when it is beaten rises again keener than ever for the struggle; and when we think that it is destroyed, it revives again, the stronger for its death.” (Institutes XI.v-vii).

So we need to couple this with a second strategy. There is an old piece of moral advice on how to combat vainglory. DeYoung describes it as ‘silence and solitude.’ To help develop the virtue of magnanimity (the opposite of vainglory), you pursue the good in contexts which no one can see, and then be silent about what you have done. I find this extremely difficult, but it’s the very difficulty of the activity that helps unmask vainglory within oneself. The most famous articulation of this advice comes in Matthew 6:

“But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret. . . . And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love . . . that they may be seen by others. . . . But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. . . And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret.”

It is important to pursue virtue in contexts where it cannot be mixed up with any vainglorious desires. Such a strategy is perhaps the most promising advice I can give in this post on how combat vainglory in oneself.

I opened this post with a meditation on Plato, and so I think it would be fitting to end similarly. In the Gorgias, Plato gives a picture of what it would look like if one were to properly understand the way that argument features as a means to the pursuit of truth. The virtuous agent (in this context Socrates) would be one who could honestly say “I am one of those who are very willing to be refuted if I say anything which is not true, and very willing to refute any one else who says what is not true, and quite as ready to be refuted as to refute” (458a). It is an ideal that I am far from meeting, but it is also an ideal which provides a wonderful picture of the truly philosophical soul. It shows what it would really means to love wisdom.

Overview of 2017 Curriculum Updates—By Lawrence, Marshall, and SunHee

This first post in the Curriculum Corner is to roll out, and explain, some of the new curricular elements that we have been developing and will be using at VBI this summer. Later in this series we will have articles to explain these components in-depth and go into detail about what pedagogical value we think each of them has. But for now, we think it’s important for people to have at least a general idea of what our new programs this summer will look like. 

Dine With a Mind: There are already lots of ways for students to meet and talk with instructors at debate camp. However, much of that time is formalized in ways that are not always optimal for getting to know an instructor and really picking their brain on a tough issue for an extended period. The Dine With a Mind Program is designed to fill that lacuna. It allows students, either individually or in a group, to sign up to get a meal with an instructor. Talking over a meal provides a wonderful and less formal context for fellowship with others. I know that many of the most engaging and challenging conversations I’ve had with students about issues of debate and philosophy occurred in the context of a meal. By providing an official program, we hope to guarantee that every student who wants to receives such an opportunity can do so, at no additional cost to them.

Module and Seminar Integration: Modules have always been the primary ‘elective’ feature of our curriculum. Modules allow students to learn about areas of new or particular interest. This year we are going to include seminar selections into the module options. Students, if they want to, can sign up for a seminar which would run during module slots. These seminars are modeled off the seminar system that many students will eventually experience once they begin taking upper-level classes in college. They will consist in an instructor and small group of students carefully working through nightly readings within an area of debate applicable literature. This will provide a unique learning opportunity to develop, discuss and investigate new positions and ideas.

Student Clubs: As another component of our attempt to increase student control in what they learn, we are introducing student directed clubs. Students will have the opportunity to form their own clubs with an instructor as an advisor. Some students might form a 'philosophy club' others might form a 'K innovation league' or a 'frontlining util frameworks faction’ or a 'novice casing company.' Not only does this provide a lot of valuable elective freedom for students to pursue their interests, it also helps develop important skills for team-building and team-development during the year. Additionally, these clubs will be able to bring in instructors (either their advisor or others) to help cover additional content. Thus, these clubs will provide students the opportunity to, functionally, create their own custom modules.

Student Run Modules: There is overwhelming research (and I can confirm from personal experience) that there are few (if any) better ways to learn something than to teach it. To provide another opportunity for students to get teaching experience, we are formalizing student run modules this year. Students will have the opportunity to submit an application (explaining the content of their proposed module, their module outline and which instructor they are working with to prepare) to teach an official student run module during camp. These modules are currently scheduled to occur during the 1-on-1 mentor blocks (since mentors each have four mentees, each mentee is free for at least an hour every other day), allowing any student who does not have a 1-on-1 mentor meeting during that time to attend if they are interested.

Evening Activities: We are also introducing optional formalized evening activities for students wanting to make the most of their camp time. These activities will involve hour long segments dedicated to a wide variety of activities, from staff and student demonstration debates, panels on a wide-range of subjects, debate round analysis, additional one-on-one work time with top-tier instructors, forums on advocacy and diversity in debate, and much more. While informal evening activities have long been a staple of a VBI education, a formalized schedule will provide many additional learning opportunities for students every night. With multiple activities to choose from, there will always be something for the eager student to participate in.

Equity Day: As we continue to entertain ideas of how to make debate a more diverse space we also want to focus on the question of equity in the activity. How do we create a space so that those from different backgrounds not only feel comfortable but have tools and mentors necessary to equip them with everything they need to have some form of equal footing in debate? Integrating black, latinx, queer, low-income, and differently abled students is not enough if we are not providing adequate support. Equity day will be a combination of interactive activities, personalized workshops based on different identities in debate, and introductory explanations to diverse literature that incorporate multiple perspectives both inside and outside of rounds. With the ability to rotate and see many different perspective within our community, we hope to come one step closer to dealing with the lack of equity in debate and create calls to action within the conversation.

Overall, we honestly think these curricular innovations will make this the best summer—at the very least, curricularly—that VBI has ever had.

Introducing Curriculum Corner—By Marshall

Hey debate world! The Curriculum Staff at VBI is starting a new series of posts here on VBriefly dedicated to discussing debate curriculum. The hope is to use this space, partially, to promulgate information about our camp curriculum, but also to prompt discussion and provide resources for the broader debate world about debate instruction.

We intend to post lots of different types of articles in this series. We are currently planning a piece that introduces the new curricular components we are rolling out at VBI this summer. Yet, in a very different vein, I am also working on a piece about why we should take seriously Plato’s warning to not teach youth how to argue. And neither curricular revelations, nor Marshall’s theft from wiser minds, exhausts our plans for this series.

We will post links to articles/studies that we have found helpful in our own thinking about camp curriculum, perhaps providing occasional commentary to show what role the articles play in shaping our own thoughts.  We plan to post interviews with various instructors on debate drills and teaching techniques. We will post thoughts from debaters and coaches on how to make the most out of your time at debate camp, and even content on how parents can help their kids thrive. We may host a vote to determine, once and for all, the best opening, in-lab, ice-breaker questions.

Thus, this series will include posts about: academic articles, curricular components, debate drills, instructor interviews, parental promoting, surviving the summer, and words of wisdom; all with some marvelous miscellany thrown in. The thing that will unite it all together is its focus on a single, simple question: how can we better teach debate?

If you have thoughts on issues related to that question that you would like us to bring up or discuss, please let us know in the comment section (indeed, if you can find a nice alliterative title, it will be difficult for me to resist adopting it as a regular feature).

This does, however, leave us with one final question. Why?

This series is motivated by two things. First is the recognition that teaching is difficult. And as hard as teaching is, teaching well is that much harder. There is room for every teacher involved in debate to better learn to teach well. This is true whether we are instructing for a camp, coaching for a school, captaining for a team, or just helping teach a friend. Second is the recognition that those students who decide to give up their summers to learn debate at VBI, and those parents who send off their kids to camp for weeks on end, deserve to understand the curricular thoughts that shape what and how it is that students at VBI learn. Thus, this series is also a way for you to learn and think about how we think and teach.