Upstart Virginia team beats Oxford in debate

The Washington Times ^ | 12/11/04 | By Sarah Hoffman and Gary Emerling

[BRUMama]

England's Oxford University is widely known for producing some of the world's best debaters, such as British Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair. But last weekend, the school's moot court team was defeated by two former home-schoolers from a small Virginia college named after American Revolution patriot and orator Patrick Henry. Matt du Mee, 22, and Rayel Papke, 21, who attend Patrick Henry College, pulled off a victory against their British competitors in the first moot court tournament between one of the world's most renowned universities and the 4-year-old Christian college in Purcellville. Andrew Graham, master of Balliol College at Oxford, said Thursday the United States victory did not surprise him because the students were well prepared.

[BRUMama]

Homeschooling comes of age!!! Take that, NEA!!!!

[Perdogg]

Chalk up another victory for the "United States of Jesusland".

[Stentor]

Bump.

[YouPosting2Me]

"Gentlemen, please quiet down"

"Sir, It's not your turn"

"Dude, Shut Up"

"No! You Shut Up!"

"No! Yoooou Shut Up!"

"..."

[drt1]

One will get you 10 that if these students had attended any one of the 90% of substandard US public schools (And many so-called "Private" schools) they wouldn't be able to even communicate with the Oxfordians. The state of education is deplorable and it cries out for school vouchers as a first remedial step. Congrats to winners.

[Dark Glasses and Corncob Pipe]

Almost as mind-boggling as when (ahem) Lamar University Engineering Dept. beat Rice, Texas and Texas A&M in a model bridge-building competition a few years ago.

[pepperdog]

Wow! And they are from a Red state too aren't they? No public school education and raised in one of the "less intelligent" areas of the nation, how can this have happened? Congrats to the students and their parents!

[RAY]

Rambling thoughts:

It is good to be smart. Being smart and well educated is even better. However, being smart, well educated and wise is even better. But without kindness and a good work ethic, it can all be for naught. We can only hope that those blessed with "smart" will go on to benefit society.

Some of us can only imagine what it would be like to be smart - not to mention to work as hard as these student did to prepare.

Congratulation to these "home schooled", now college students, and their parents!

[srm913]

Since November 2, the schadenfreude never ends! It's the gift that keeps on giving.

[agere_contra]

Congratulations!

[Tax-chick]

Yippee!

[Constitution1st]

My son and daughter are home educated, and are members of the speech and debate league that produced some of these winners. It was started by Michael Farris of HSLDA and founder of Patrick Henry College. My daughter wants to attend Patrick Henry, and my son has participated in their summer debate camp. It is new, and having growing pains, but producing extraordinary results in their key areas. Good sign for the future of the institution.

[The Great RJ]

Being the graduate of a small liberal arts (in the classic sense) Christian college,their achievment is a sweet victory for all of us who benefited from this type of excellent education.

[republicanwizard]

haha!

[William Terrell]

The state of education is deplorable and it cries out for school vouchers as a first remedial step.

I keep hearing about vouchers being a remedy for careless schools. Any time the government injects money into either end of a process, they can lawfully control the process.

Vouchers would turn private schools into government schools, which is the opposite of what people want vouchers to do.

[ladylib]

Check this out. It's the web page of a new classical Christian school in my state. Scroll down the page and see how classical schools fare in comparison to the top public high school and the top-rated tony private school in my state:

http://www.stratfordcca.org/

The winners of the Oxford debate probably had a classical education at home -- the trivium: grammar, logic, and rhetoric.

[Xenalyte]

Debate is one of the VERY few things I miss about academia. It was fun.

[beebuster2000]

virginia=Red state

[VOA]

...summer debate camp. It is new, and having growing pains, but producing extraordinary
results in their key areas.

I'm jealous. I attended a good-quality public high school, as well as graduating from
a college affiliated with a conservative church.
Even with a graduate degree in the physical sciences, the only rigorous, systematic
training in logic I got was from a chemistry prof. that was considered a bit eccentric
by his peers at the Christian college.

I've been both enlightened (and angered by my deficiencies) by exposure to
systematic logic as presented by theologian/philosopher R.C. Sproul on his radio show.

Courses in logic, rhetoric and associated subjects are sadly lacking in education.
I can only guess that these courses were victims of the 1960s social revolution (chaos).

Nice to see them making a bit of a "comeback", especially in Christian
organizations that structured a lot of this knowledge centuries ago.