Debate Updates

As some of you know, my poker playing for the last few years has supported not only myself but a debate league in the Boston Public Schools. It started as just a volunteer thing that I did with a few teachers, but we soon realized that it had potential to help a lot of students if we could make it better. The key to that has been getting the administration of BPS to take some ownership of it, so that it would become part of the school system and not just an outside program.

I’m very excited that after months of meetings, the superintendent and her staff have agreed to invest $50,000 in the League. This is actually less than I was hoping, but it’s still a huge improvement from nothing and will hopefully get us a foot in the door. Everyone I’ve met in the administration has seemed genuinely taken with the program. Now we’ll have access to data such as debaters’ GPA and test scores (this will be part of our deal with BPS), the numbers will back up our claims about how participation in debate can improve confidence, academic achievement, critical thinking, literacy, etc. It seems very plausible to me that there could be debate teams in every high school in the city, and maybe middle schools as well, within ten years.

It’s kind of sad that I’ll probably be leaving Boston just as this thing really takes off. I’ll still be involved as a member of the Board, but we’re hiring a full time person to direct the League.

This afternoon, I attended an end-of-the-year banquet and awards ceremony for one of my debate teams. In addition to awards for all the debaters, they had one for me in honor of my last year as director. Though it was technically from the whole team, I know that the coach and one student in particular were behind it. These two are respectively among the most extraordinary of the dozens of teachers and hundreds of students I’ve worked with in my seven years in the urban debate field, and their respect means the world to me.

Here’s the trophy, which I’m sure will become one of my most cherished possessions:

Actually the aforementioned student just found this blog recently. When she saw me today, the first thing she said was, “Hey I googled your name.”

Uh oh, I know where this is going. “Yeah?”

“I didn’t know about all that poker stuff.”

“Yeah I don’t really make a big deal about it at work.”

“That’s pretty neat. So you are like a beginner?”

“Uh, I didn’t say that. Where’d you get that from?”

“Some article from the Baltimore Sun said it was like your second time or you made money for the second time or something.”

“Yeah, my second time making money… at the world championships.”

“Oh. That’s pretty good.”

And a close-up of the engraving: