Debate Diary

Some of you who read my blog before it went into hybernation may recall that I was starting up a debate team at a local alternative school. Well, I'm still at it. We meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I have five students who regularly attend.

Yesterday was probably our best session of the year. All five kids were there, and when I showed up they were full of energy and ready to debate. They wanted to debate about whether or not drugs should be legalized.

"That sounds good to me," I said. "Except none of you will want to take the negative side."

Fortunately, one kid declared that he was adamently anti-drug, so the teacher and I teamed up with him to go against the other four.

Usually when I'm with kids from De La Salle or Central or wherever and the subject of drugs comes up we talk about crack as the default worst of the worst. But lately I've been trying to mix things up a bit by mentioning meth. I did this yesterday as we were preparing for the practice round. It was interesting because as the round progressed more and more of the students began using meth as an example of the worst drug you could do. At one point one of the kids even suggested that it is so bad that it has no redeeming value.

I wanted to ask the students if they know anyone who does meth, so as to determine if there are any blacks who use it. But the opportunity didn't really arise.

Besides, I'm a little nervous that my experiment with mentioning meth in conversations about drugs might somehow begin some sort of word-of-mouth buzz that'll make meth popular among blacks. Which is a pretty absurd notion, I know.