In order to stay a step ahead of opponents policy debaters
are encouraged to take the basic building block of an argument and innovate new
ways to refute their opponents. One of the primary ways debate maintains
flexibility in training is by having a limited number of formal rules and
encouraging debaters to create the world of debate that best serves their needs
and the training they desire. Unlike other competitive forums were students are
beholden to one interpretation of the game they play, debates strongest feature
is its ability to innovate via in round debates. From speed talking, to
interpreting topics creatively or using different forms of academic research
debate forces students to stay ahead of the argumentative curve.
In fact, the format for debate is itself debatable. This
feature teaches skills in advocacy that no other activity can match. To an
outsider this contestation may be confusing or frustrating, but in the academic
world of debate this contestation is what makes the activity innovative. This
skill is essential to advocacy that includes the creation or amending of rules,
standards or norms. In an ever more quickly changing world the ability to
innovate is necessary to be successful in any field, and debate trains
innovation better than any other activity.
Debate also encourages innovation as a response to failure. In policy debate students must deal with the consequences of failure. In every debate a student either wins or
losses and no team has ever been undefeated through their entire careers. Often
time students only have a matter of minutes in between losing one debate and
having to start another. Learning to take a loss, and learning
from that loss is a unique
aspect of policy debate, this process leads to the creativity necessary for innovation. Students must learn to dwell in this failure and according to Judith Halberstam that is in and of itself productive,
"Under certain circumstances failing, losing, forgetting, unmaking, undoing, unbecoming, not knowing may in fact offer more creative, more cooperative, more surprising ways of being in the world... Perhaps most obviously, failure allows us to escape the punishing norms that discipline behavior and manage human development with the goal of delivering us from unruly childhoods to orderly and predictable adulthoods. Failure preserves some of the wondrous anarchy of childhood and disturbs the supposedly clean boundaries between adults and children, winners and losers." (Halberstam, 2-3)
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Halberstam, Judith The Queer Art of Failure Durham & London: Duke University Press 2011
