Debate over Lunch

Parking: You are welcome to park in any un-covered spot in the parking lot.

Topics: The topics of conversation for next week are:

• The United States should adopt a Nordic-style prison model that emphasizes rehabilitation over punishment.
  - Sample Arguments For Adoption
  - - Norway's rehabilitation-focused prison model achieves the world's lowest recidivism rate (around 20%), compared to over 60% in the U.S., proving it better protects long-term public safety while successfully reintegrating offenders.
  - - Early U.S. pilots adopting Nordic principles, such as Pennsylvania's "Little Scandinavia" unit, have dramatically reduced prison violence and improved staff retention, demonstrating practical benefits even in American facilities.
  - Sample Arguments Against Adoption
  - - The Nordic model's success depends on small, homogeneous societies with extensive social welfare systems, making it culturally and structurally incompatible with the diverse, large-scale U.S. prison population.
  - - Implementing it would require massively higher per-prisoner costs and risk significant public backlash over perceived leniency, especially for violent offenders who dominate U.S. incarceration rates.
• The United States public school system should replace the traditional three-month summer vacation with a trimester schedule featuring shorter, more frequent breaks distributed throughout the year.
  - Sample Arguments For Replacement
  - - Adopting a trimester system would minimize the "summer slide" learning loss, where students forget up to two months of material, leading to better academic retention and performance as evidenced by studies from the Brookings Institution showing year-round models improve outcomes for low-income families.
  - - It provides more consistent childcare options for working parents, reducing financial strain from summer camps or lost wages, while allowing families to plan shorter vacations during off-peak seasons for cost savings and less crowded travel.
  - Sample Arguments Against Replacement
  - - Ending long summer vacations disrupts cherished family traditions like extended trips or seasonal activities, potentially harming work-life balance and cultural norms that prioritize unstructured time for child development and parental bonding.
  - - Teachers and staff may experience increased burnout without a prolonged break for rest and professional development, and the transition could raise costs for air conditioning, maintenance, and adjusted curricula in districts not equipped for year-round operations.

You're welcome to research the topic beforehand, but it's not necessary. We will form the teams and select the judge/s on the day of the meetings. Light snacks and drinks will be provided, but feel free to bring your own food and drinks.

Meetup Rules:
Strict Rule: Don't interrupt others when it is their time to speak. The only interruptions will be to let them know how much time remains.

Recommended Rules:

1. Treat others with respect.
2. Try to argue for positions you don't agree with to increase your mind's plasticity.
3. Don't tease or make fun of anyone or any groups.
4. During the debate portion only, try to avoid making jokes.

Judge Recommendations:

• Note good points from both teams.
• Make a decision as to who won the argument.

Judging Rules:

1. Selection of the judge is done on the spot, the day of the event - usually someone volunteers to be judge.
2. After forming teams, the judge will pick a side to start the debate.
3. Judge will only enforce the time for each team's cumulative time per turn. The time limit is 3 minutes per person, so a team of 3 will get 9 minutes in total per turn. The team will decide how to use their total time as they best see fit.
4. There will be 3 turns per debate.
   A) Both teams will get 3 minutes to prepare their Opening Statements.
   B) Then each team will deliver their Opening Statements.
   C) After Opening Statements teams, teams will get 2 minutes to re-group.
   D) Then teams will deliver their Middle Arguments.
   E) After Middle Arguments teams, teams will get 2 minutes to re-group.
   F) Lastly, teams will deliver their Final Summary statements.
   G) The judge will decide who won the debate.
5. We need a minimum of 3 people to have a debate. Otherwise, we just hang out and chat.

How Motions/Topics are determined:

1. Opportunity will be provided at the end of each session to select and finalize the debate topic for each session.
2. If the group cannot determine, a topic for the next session, then the Organizer will pick a topic.

Additional Rule-Making Process:
If there is a decision needed about the rules:

1. Make a tentative decision for the current session.
2. Allocate time during the next session for discussing and finalizing the decision.
3. Generally, we want to minimize the number of rules to maintain simplicity.