I’ve been a Parliamentary debater since I was in seventh grade. The event has defined the past years of my life. This article is my attempt to share with you my experiences as a Parliamentary debater.
Fall of 2019 was an interesting time for me. I didn’t really have any strong motivations or activities to speak of. Nothing distinctive, for sure. I chose debate as an elective at my middle school on a whim, and was immediately hooked. I started off in Public Forum, a type of debate that focuses on citations and research above all. While that sounds boring, I was interested. Being right had never felt so rewarding. It was when we started working on Parliamentary Debate that I became truly invested, though. My former school’s debate team has been considered one of the best in Parli (the ubiquitous abbreviation for Parliamentary Debate) for years, and the quality of the coaching sold me on the event.
Parli, unlike Public Forum, doesn’t place any emphasis on citations. Instead, logical argumentation reigns supreme. Speeches are longer so that debaters can actually articulate their points, and rounds follow an atypical speech pattern that I found odd at first but have come to love. Instead of being focused on pre-formatted evidence written a month in advance, Parli debates are a different topic every round with only 20 minutes to prepare a case. The event encourages fast research, high-quality logic, and developing knowledge in a variety of topic areas. All of this, to me, sounded too good to be true. And yet, there I was.
One of the things that I have come to love most about Parli in particular is the tight-knit community. Debaters from different schools all over the Bay Area know each other, even though they are often fierce rivals in-round. In fact, the strongest rivals sometimes make the best friends. At my last tournament, I was commiserating about a horrible topic with a team from Washington High School, who went on to beat my partner and I in that round. While I do regret losing, and I have sworn to take my vengeance in due time, it’s always reassuring to have a supportive community that appreciates what you bring to the table.
On that note, I’d like to talk about another of my favorite things about Parli: the Kritik. The Kritik is an argument that uses critical theory or philosophy to interrogate the underlying assumptions or representations of the round or a team’s advocacy. The Kritik was my foot in the door of the scholarship that has shaped my worldview today. Considering how we, as people but also as debaters, relate to the debate space, our opponents, and the world around us is an exercise in creativity beyond all others. This year, I’ve begun writing up Kritiks based on my original syntheses of critical thought, which has been some of the most fun writing I’ve ever done. While it certainly isn’t easy to engage with debate in this way, it’s rewarding to say the least.
Frankly, seventh grade me would’ve considered it absolutely astounding that I’d ever get this far in the event, and I’m proud of the work that I’ve contributed to the debate community. Call me biased, but I have no regrets in choosing Parli as my major activity of choice. All I can hope is that others might choose to follow in my footsteps and keep our event thriving.
If you’re interested in learning about Parli, or just about Speech and Debate in general, I’d be happy to answer questions or provide resources. You can email me at beng25@stu.svintl.org.
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