Extemp and Debate Part 1

I don't know how many of my readers did speech and debate in high school, but since it is the reason that I am overwhelmed and behind in all my work, I thought I would take a moment to write about it. Really, I have two observations (N.B. Therese is participating in the NCFCA, a Christian homeschool forensics league. Much of it is identical to NFL, but not all of it is): almost everything is exactly the same! Technology isn't.

I give you Prepd. If you extemped backed in the day, you won't believe this! Extemp files are virtual now. You find the article on the web, click the little trophy cup (I think it's a speaker award - at least in my world it is), assign it a folder, and it is in your club's "box." Seriously. You can clip a hundred articles an hour. When you're in the round, you are using the app which is disconnected from the Internet, you can use the timer to time your half-hour prep, you can "pull" your articles, and all proceeds as normal (long aside: in NCFCA, they use a NOTECARD in Extemp! It's hideous. They have, like, technique classes for how to fold your notecard to use it discreetly. I am teaching Therese to extemp without it. I think it looks terrible. All you have to do is Google the NFL national champ vs. the NCFCA national champ in Extemp to see the difference (well, one of many).). Prepd is awesome.

Oh, and flowpads. I assume they still use my flowpad of choice in NFL.



And some of the kids in Therese's club (EnGarde) use legal pads, but many of them (including Therese) use this little number:

Former debaters, is it just me, or does this just look, well, non-debaterish? 

Well, I was going to write more, but I am currently involved in an argument with my daughter about what exactly constitutes a flow pad. Sigh. To be continued...