Communication and Debate Club Meetings

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2008 – THE COMMUNICATION CLUB WILL MEET AT 1 PM IN ROOM 610 @ 50 WEST 23RD. This should be a “fun” session! We will focus on “Reading Aloud.” We will start with reading the telephone book in an exciting manner. Then we’ll turn to reading of published short poetry and prose (no original writing this time) to discover how your voice can make the words come off the page. Bring a couple of your favorite poems and short prose pieces to experiment with. Hal Wicke will get you used to sounding silly and stretching your voice by having everyone read from the telephone book.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2008 – DEBATE TEAM WILL MEET AT 1 PM IN ROOM 610 @ 50 WEST 23RD. Our next challenge is to identify the basic documents which will be the foundation of our affirmative and negative cases for Gun Control. These documents include: the U.S. Constitution and all its amendments (particularly the 2nd amendment) and the current New York State law on gun control. From the NYS law, we’ll frame the Resolution and then share our collected evidence for both sides and begin to build our cases.

WHAT HAPPENED ON THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2008 –DEBATE TEAM MEETING?
Drani Gabu, our team anchor, welcomed three returnees, Mor Sarr, Tetyana Averkina and Johnny Celestin and newcomer Libio Carcasses to the Debate training session. Faculty David Nussbaum and Richard Green continue to help Hal Wicke in the Debate sessions. Hal learned later that James Millner had a death in the family and could not attend.

Drani reviewed the stack of Gun Control research he collected, particularly the 2nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and the NYS law. The first part of the two hour session was spent on defining the terms of the 2nd Amendment. We quickly found how challenging the apparently simple task was since several people defined words differently. We talked about the “status quo” of the Resolution – not yet framed.

We were brainstorming various arguments for why guns were important (a 2nd Amendment position) when the most interesting exchange occurred. Tetyana spontaneously questioned the definitions of Libio’s statement about why keeping guns are important. Libio’s responses raised other questions about what constitutes valid evidence and the careful use of language (“all” when you mean “some.”).This unexpected exchange showed how careful questioning in a cross examination can expose the strength of an argument and the evidence used to support it.

Hal asked the others how they would have responded to Tetyana’s questions. He was trying to do an “autopsy” on the questions and answers to raise awareness of how so many aspects of communication – and debate – can be misinterpreted. This autopsy process will be a regular feature of the Debate training.

In another exchange, Hal took the book on becoming an entrepreneur in business that Johnny was carrying and went through parts of the table of contents to point out how many aspects of going into business required superb communication skills. Interviewing workers and persuading venture capitalists to give you money were among the topics.

This summary doesn’t do justice to what happened during the session. Everyone seemed to be riveted on what we were doing. For his first time, Libio said that the session moved “slowly but was very interesting.”

See you next time. Bring a friend!

Hal Wicke