Final Reflections

Quick breakdown of today's activities. We visited Maiden's Tower, an ancient lighthouse and fortress dating from the 12th century and ate lunch at the tower. It offered excellent views of the European side of Istanbul, but featured a petite little ferry boat that transported guests to and from the tower. Given that the Bosporus was rougher than usual today, the boat heaved as the water tossed. Fortunately, no one got seasick. We then proceeded to the Theodosian Walls (the remnants of the city walls) via the T1 Tramway Line, and got some video footage of the ancient structure. The remaining day is now being dedicated to packing, and getting some rest before our transportation to the airport arrives at 2AM.

The trip has been an amazing experience, as we have had the opportunity to explore and interact with the unique East-West Ancient-Modern culture of Istanbul and its people, as well as learn something new about something old - debate. All of us learned a new debate format, as well as the approaches other countries and cultures take to debate, which is often very distinct and different than debate in the United States. If nothing else, the understanding and comparision of the different forms of debate can help to focus our attention to the real fundamentals of debate: awareness, education, and understanding. Often, we get caught up in the competition of debate and forget the reasons for having debate at the high school level in the first place. Indeed, that is why we have been so enthusiastic about supporting the Global Debates program - it encourages activism and real-life action outside of the classroom and beyond the debate itself, which I believe strikes at the very core of debate itself. To me, both competition and education is the motivating factor behind why we debate. Of course, everyone wants to compete and win, and that is no different in debate, but I do not see that fully describing a motivation to debate. One could participate in any given sport, compete, and possibly win, so why pursue an activity that demands a lot of dedication and intellectual work (not to mention overcoming the daunting task of standing up in front of judges to be critiqued on your work)? I believe the drive toward self-improvement and education on real-world issues and policy is a major motivating factor, even if it does not surface as regularily as the competitive drive. While no doubt the other debaters will have different takes on their personal motivation, I believe elements of those two drives will surface.

Pictures from today (Maiden's Tower):



Post: Alex