Stand and Deliver

Categories: Nonfiction , African American

For his first three years in high school, my son took what we used to call "business math" and made C's.  Now, through a scheduling snafu, he is taking AP calculus.  He is still making C's, but they are a much higher level of C's, presumably. 

I'm not sure about the connection between this little anecdote (which admittedly would be more inspirational if he were now making A's) and Joe Miller's wonderful Cross-X, a book about a high school debating team at an inner-city school in Kansas City, Missouri, where almost everyone, including the debators, has academic deficiencies.  Nevertheless, the debating team is consistently ranked one of the top high-school teams in the country.  I think the connection is that if expectations are high, people will rise to them.

Joe Miller, a Kansas-City reporter, spent two years shadowing Central High's debating team and writing about its members, particularly two stars, Marcus and Brandon; and two novices, Ebony and Antoine. 

The first thing you're struck by is that debate on the national level is not exactly what you'd expect if you're not into the scene.  The standard is for the students to "run cases" they've bought or put together as a group effort at debating summer camp--it's very rare for the students to do their own writing.  Second, because of  time limits, the students must speak very quickly, almost incomprehensibly--Joe Miller estimates 300 words a minute (normal American speech is in the 185-wpm range)--to get their points across.

The team wins some and loses some but becomes eligible for the Tournament of Champions the first year that Miller shadows them.  However, because of a minor (though you'd think foreseeable by the coach) rules violation, the team does not get to go.

Marcus is invited to accompany the University of Louisville debate team to Los Angeles and is somewhat repelled by their style, which is completely different from the speed-debating style he has learned.  The Louisville Project uses hip-hop music as background for their debates, relies on personal anecdotes for evidence rather than on public-policy case law, and argues that the whole concept of debate is exclusionary and racist.

Miller gets increasingly involved with the Central High team and completely loses his journalistic distance.  He convinces Marcus not to quit the team at one point, and later becomes an assistant coach.  Miller is critical of speed-talk debating and convinces the team to try adding music and emotional evidence to their performances.  He believes that speed debating has decimated the program in Nebraska by reducing student interest, whereas in states in which debate has resisted the fast-talking formula, teams are often pretty large and involved.  Some of the judging seems to Miller unfair and probably biased.  

What happens to the high-school guys?  Well, during the second year of Miller's reporting project, the team gets to go to Azerbaijan and China.  The two star debators win debating scholarships.  Two novices improve dramatically and after one debate are offered scholarships on the spot to the University of Iowa.  Miller's life perhaps changes as much as the students': he becomes a debating coach at another urban high school in Kansas City. 

Highly recommended, and by the way one of the most creative covers I've seen in a long time.