The school’s debate class received the eighth edition of their class textbooks last week. The textbooks, titled “Mastering Competitive Debate”, arrived at the school Oct. 5.

Debate teacher Mark Schledorn said that the new textbooks are a welcome addition to the class.

“I’ve never taught debate before,” Schledorn said. “I need the books to help me with lesson plans. Secondly, we are in a highly politically-charged environment right now, so I don’t want to be accused of going off the rails with the topics.”

The eighth edition debate textbooks were published in 2020, while the seventh edition of the textbooks were published in 2005. Schledorn also pointed to this as a reason for why the new textbooks are necessary, saying that 2005 is “a long time ago when it comes to research.”

The new textbook includes more up-to-date research and topics and explores modern debate structures, making it beneficial to the class. However, it took two months into the school year for the books to arrive.

“[Assistant Principal Glenn] Webb kindly ordered the books, and I’m sure they were more than $100 apiece,” Schledorn said. “When he went to order them, they were on backorder, so they weren’t available.”

Now that the textbooks are in, Schledorn plans to use them to teach debate structure, etiquette, speaking and strategies to his students, adjusting his lesson plans accordingly.

Freshman Maggie Qin hasn’t seen the new nextbooks yet, but she said she is ready for the change.

“I think I can adapt to the change, and I’m excited for it,” Qin said. “Since I never really learned debate, like the steps and the principles of it, I feel like it would be helpful for me in my further research and cases.”

By Juliana Johnson