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Teaching Philosophy
I am of the belief and engage in the practice of "teaching up" rather than the common (and UMPDS exclusive) method of teaching
down. Teaching up requires remembering what it is like to be new to an organization, skill or knowledge base. In the case
of debate it means remembering all of the questions that arose in the typical newbie's first day. There were many questions
that do not have any relevance towards debate in the experience of the veteran, but the novice does not know that. 99% of
mentors, teachers, trainers, etc. try to work their way down the "ladder of knowledge" until they find where the trainee is
located. This eliminates the ability to fill in many holes in training or oversights from previous trainers. This also does
not account for the natural retention of previous training by the trainee.
The most difficult ability to acquire is to start at the bottom of the ladder, answer the "not germane" questions in the trainees'
minds before they even develop, and work your way UP the "ladder of knowledge" until you locate the trainee's knowledge level.
This allows those gaps in knowledge to be reinforced by accident (by accident only because the trainee was not going to ask
or know to ask for that knowledge).
The teach-up method provides an actually quick learning curve, far more solid "core" of knowledge, and more confidence in
the learning process--eliminating frustration and skill ceilings.
This philosophy takes years to develop, practice and perfect. I have it. None of the other candidates have exhibited it.
Not having this philosophy does not also mean that the training is impossible. But having the teach-up philosophy has higher
percentage of high results.
Debate and Team Experience
I have been debating only for about 2 1/2 years. Locally I have won Top 5 Speaker of the Year two years in a row at PLUM.
I have won numerous team awards while paired with people of varying experience. From the prodigal Stu Whitson and very polished
Brian Billings to many teammates at their first tournament (in some cases their very first debate).
I have won the Greg LaPanta Award (top quality at the state tournament). I was personally invited by the President of NPDA
in 2002-03 to attend the National Tournament based on my performance in rounds that he had witnessed. (I was told that we
could not attend because UMPDS did not have enough money)
My participation with the team includes being the Historian and Publicist, being in the team's first Public Debate and organizing
the publicity for another public debate that had in attendance 3 television news crews and 4 newsprint reporters as well as
2 radio interviews after the fact. I also did all of the NPDA registration for UMPDS in 2003-04 including the arrangement
of transportation.
I am able to help the team in aspects outside of simply the Novice Training duties. My experience as a University accountant
allow me to understand the nature of team finances as well as better budgeting. This will help in member retention. Being
involved from the beginning I have seen and obtained feedback from a number of people, both happy and unhappy with the team.
I can draw from this experience to make the debate team a better team all around.
Speaking Skills Environments
Among many other things I have been involved with a number of differing environments to utilize speaking skills. Each venue
requires different skills to be obtained. Each venue helped to teach new aspects of persuasive speaking skills (beyond the
classroom and theorizing aspect).
What you can learn in classes is valuable to diagnose other people's rhetorical and persuasive tactics. They do very little
to actually help the team in actual debates. What other venues? State Conventions, Congressional District conventions, speaking
roles in student groups, Toastmasters (earned Competent Toastmaster in 1999), Town Hall meetings, classroom training, "board
meetings", council meetings (was a member of the Board of Zoning Appeals in St Louis Park) and many, many other venues.
We are not in debate for ONLY college debate. For the most part we are in debate to help us with skills that we hope to take
with us into the future.
The VP of Novice Training should also be able to help seniors transistion those skills. Parliamentary Debate style is NOT
the style to take into a city council or into law school. VP of Novice Training should help to isolate those skills that
will help in the future and break the habits of those that will not.
I can provide that. I also have a plan to set forth the timing of that transitioning so as to not disrupt the training of
junior members of the team.
Vision for the Team
We have a unique opportunity in the next few years. This team will have a budget that most schools dream of. This school
provides a talent pool that is very unique among many teams. Short-term goals are plentiful. "Better debaters" "more travel"
and a whole host of very short-sighted goals. Even the vocalized long term goals are lacking in the reasons-for-goals category.
We can take over APDA, NPDA, IE and World's with proper leadership and training. This will allow people a choice of what
they want to pursue from UMPDS, provide sponsors to be more excited about funding UMPDS and allow UMPDS to become one of the
premier debate teams in the nation, if not the world.
We can, in the meantime, also look to build debate coalitions with smaller schools to help expand our presence while sharing
the costs with other teams. There is nothing wrong with having a team of Minnesota schools while we build our empire. And
that is the outside of the box thinking that will this team to expand.
Change In Training
What has been the biggest problem in training this year and last year? The inability to isolate skills for practice. When
the football team is at practice they don't simply run a scrimmage each session. They isolate skills.
Two years ago the eventual winner of VP for Novice Training proclaimed "innovative ways to practice" to help work on individual
skills. What materialized in the two years since is simply debating each and every week.
What will change if I am elected?
There will be opportunities to debate each week, but there also needs to be opportunities to watch. Repetition is good, but
observation helps each other with bad habits. An observer is better able to identify and announce those bad habits.
Feedback is crucial to improvement. Isolation is necessary to make skills become a core and instinctive skill.
I plan to make that happen. I will make that happen.
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