CMSDL Monday Memo — vol. I, no. 7 — August 20, 2012

Very brief post-vacation Monday Memo today.

Don’t hesitate to contact us at the CDC — 312-427-0524 — to let us know how we can help you get your 2012/13 debate season started.

1. CDL in the Summer Media

Marshall H.S. debate coach Jim Dorrell was interviewed by MSNBC, discussing the difficult conditions and high stakes endemic to urban public education. About 2:45 into the video Jim refers to the power of academic debate to help him improve his students’ life chances. MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry later refers back to debate as the kind of program that we should find a way to replicate.

And Chicago Lawyer did an extended piece on Legal Prep Academy and its use of debate (and other programs) to expand the diversity pipeline into the legal profession.

2. SY2013 Season Calendar Notes

The finalized SY2013 Season Calendar is on the CDL programming site, where it will remain all year.

3. Reminder: CDL Public Debate at the DuSable Museum of African American History on Thursday, August 23rd

A reminder here that debaters from Williams Prep School of Medicine and King College Prep will will take part in a public debate about school discipline and restorative justice at the DuSable Museum of African American History, 740 E. 56th Place, this Thursday, August 23rd, beginning at 6:30pm.

Immediately following the debate will be an outdoor screening of the 2007 film “The Great Debaters,” produced by Oprah Winfrey and starring Denzel Washington as the best-looking and most charismatic male debate coach who ever lived. The film is a very entertaining story, based on real events, of the 1937 national inter-collegiate debate championship won by Wiley College, an historically black college in west Texas.

All are welcome to this fun, free, pre-season event.