Hiya guys, I know this is a bit late but whaaatever. So I know some of you guys wanna do a theme, and I'm cool with that, but until then I'm going to talk about whatever comes to mind
And this week, that happens to be debating. I'm in the debating club at my high school, and though at first I thought it was gonna be a snobby and strict sort of thing, it turns out to be quite the opposite.
So in case you guys dont do this, debating is pretty much teams of people arguing at each other over some sort of topic. Usually, it's in the form of a resolution (or a bill for you Americans) which states a belief or some sort of change in the status quo (ie. This house would ban minors from eating fast food), and one side argues for the proposal while the other argues against.
Now what's weird about my schools club is that we are one of the few public schools who debate. When I go to tournaments, be it in away or in the city, I always chuckle when I see all those private school kids who attend wearing full suits and whatnot while most of us wear a polo at best. These kids have coaches; that's right, there are people in this world who get paid to teach debating. They are drilled to memorize long strings of words in order to have a meticulously structured speech. By comparison, our teacher advisor doesn't do jack; we've been as a club to about 9 tournaments, and out of those only one had the necessary paperwork filled out.
And yet, even though it seems that we are at a huge disadvantage here, when our school competes we always seem to do really well. This surprised me at first, though as I stayed with the club and the hobby I soon realized why.
Debating has taught me a few really interesting things aside from simply speaking in public . It made think of both sides of the argument, which changed my perspective on a lot of things. It also taught me that rhetoric can make anything seem like a good point. You can debate pretty much anything convincingly by spewing bullshit about existentialism and other big words and as long as the audience isn't too bright, it'll be as convincing as a ligitimate argument.
But the most important thing I learned, the thing that sets us apart from the private schools, is that understanding trumps knowledge any day. A lot of the time, we have to talk about things we have no idea of, but it is the understanding of what the general themes are that allows us to pull through. Understanding the ideas and analysing the deep connections and fundamental principles behind resolutions allows us to give convincing, solid arguments far better than if we had memorized a dozen fact sheets or structure cards. And it is this critical understanding that allows us to get ahead.
I have taken this idea and try to apply it to every facet of my life. With things like maths and science, it is not enough to simply know formulas and equations; one has to truly understand what is going on. I think this is true wit other things too, including our social lives. We know where we fit in, and we know what we do and who we do it with and where we do it, but to truly be satisfied we need to understand why these things are like they are.
I play magic the gathering (not as much now, but I still do), and one of my favorite quotes from a card is one which pertains a lot to this idea. It says,
"knowledge is counting the drops in a waterfall, but true wisdom is understanding why the water seeks the earth".
Anyways yeah sorry for the long winded thing but there you go.
Jonathan
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