<p>My daughter is a freshman. She got on our forensics team and wants to do public forum but teacher is encouraging congress for her. Anyone have any idea of pros and cons of each?</p>
<p>as a senior on the forensics team, i would say congress would be an event that can get you started. but if public forum and congress are the only options at your school then go for public forum. alot more will be learned. to be honest, congress is just an event that requires eloquent speaking to do well. it doesn’t invoke any skills in research nor logic. on the contrary, public forum stimulates your researching skills and logic a bit more.</p>
<p>I’m also a senior on the forensics team, I hold a Premier Degree distinction and I’m Public Speaking co-captain this year.</p>
<p>I’ve done both PFD and Congress, and in my opinion, Congress is a lot easier if your daughter has never had debate experience or has been really politically involved/analytical in the past. PFD requires a lot of “in the moment” spur arguments and cross-examination, while the most impromptu you’ll get with Congress is with cross-examination during your own bill, which is just once.</p>
<p>There’s a lot of pro’s and con’s to both PFD and Congress. PFD’s pros include having a partner (it being a team event), allowing your daughter to become more comfortable while participating. It’s an event that is constantly updated, as topics change per month, so it makes you adapt to forensics fairly. Cons include that as a beginner, there’s a LOT of preparation involved as you need to be able to argue the material through your prewritten speech (1st speaker more than likely) but also on the spot, and refuting the opponent’s claims, etc. with statistics and stuff. (cross-examination) There’s a lot of research involved as you have to know both sides since you have to debate pro and con.</p>
<p>Congress’s pros are that you can CHOOSE when to speak – your daughter will have the topics/bills beforehand, she can write on which side she wants (pro or con, or even both if she really wants to speak!) and that allows for convenience and more comfort when she tries to speak her first tournament. Another pro is that the only cross-examination is during questioning, which is either her being asked questions about her own bill/resolution (if she submits one which i recommend, ask your school how they do that) or her asking questions to the bill author which isn’t too intimidating. The only con I can say about Congress is that a majority of it does come down to politicking and how much experience you’ve had – it’s a confidence thing – and that sometimes, it gets a little boring in the chamber. IMO, I love congress but a lot of people that do it (who still do well) say they just think it takes too long, haha.</p>
<p>Basically imo, I recommend trying Congress first and branching out into PFD. It really does depend on your daughter’s experience – if she’s very into politics, modern issues and such, and she feels comfortable talking about them on the moment and stuff, she’ll be alright in PFD. Both require a decent amount of training, and so as long as she’s willing to learn and try it, she’ll be great!</p>
<p>I’m glad your daughter wants to join forensics… let me know if you need any more help deciding! I do OO/HI/Duo more of the time, but I’ve placed in my Districts Congress tournament and I know enough about PFD since I’ve done it once (haha), so let me know. Hope your daughter enjoys it as much as I do!</p>
<p>The school has both and she has someone she wants to do PD with but the teacher wants her to do congress and the other kid to do PD. I would say, she probably would be good at thinking on her feet but is kind of lazy (I know, not a good quality for forensics). But I don’t think the teacher knows she’s lazy. I was just wondering if there are qualities which would make someone put you in either PD or Congress. She thought the topics in PD sounded more interesting.</p>
<p>Well, speaking as yet another senior on the forensics team (Captain, Superior Distinction, Qualified for Nationals three times, went twice), I would suggest that your daughter start with Public Forum.</p>
<p>Personally, I like PFD for beginners because it really tosses them headfirst into the Forensics arena and forces them to adapt. Yeah, it might be a little rocky, but your daughter will either learn quickly (providing solid evidence of her ability to succeed in Forensics) or she won’t. The kind of mindset that PFD requires is one of absolute confidence and certainty, if your daughter wants to succeed in it then it’s going to have to take more than her coach to change her mind. </p>
<p>In the last three years of Forensics I have gone through three different coaches. Some of them were good coaches, others were bad. I listened to some, and ignored others. The point is that your daughter should make up her mind and stick with it. </p>
<p>If she wants to do PFD then she has to tell her coach that and make it clear that she will suffer whatever the consequences. In fact, I would even have her point out to the coach the duality of his suggestion that the person she wants to partner with is allowed to do PFD and she is told to go do Congress. If the kid she wants to partner with is a guy, she could always ask if she is being told to do Congress because she’s a girl (I kid…to a certain extent.). </p>
<p>In my experience, forensics coaches favor those who work hard and do well. If your daughter can do the work needed, and do it well, then she will have no problem convincing the coach. Frankly, if she really wants to do PFD have her do the work necessary now, and then have her bring it in and show the coach that she can do the work.</p>
<p>Now, you mention that she is kind of lazy. I am in no way passing judgement, but there are many kinds of ‘lazy’ people and you know your daughter best, so take what I have to say and consider it within the perspective of her and your situation. I just have to say that Forensics was what really helped to develop my work ethic during high school, I was passionate about it and that’s what forced me to do the work. And because I cared so much about Forensics and having time to do that, I made sure that all my other work was done quickly so that I could focus on Forensics. So, I would really just push her to do PFD, step back, and see what happens. She’ll either love it and do the work necessary, or she won’t and the work won’t get done.</p>
<p>I’m not a huge fan of Congress purely because doing well in it is about as exciting as watching sedentary man move. Really, I always found it to be so absurdly focused on the rules of conduct and precooked speeches that it was boring. I would steer your daughter away from Congress purely because her first Forensics experience should be something interesting, not something that she might do well at, but will be boring.</p>
<p>Glad to see that your daughter is interested in Forensics, it made my years at high school much more interesting and maybe it can do the same for her.</p>
<p>Also, Prism, how many meets do you go to in a season? I go to every meet I can (Forensics and Debate) and place at most of them, and yet I could only get up to Superior. I mean, you must be at a tournament every weekend, right?</p>
<p>Lantzk, last year I went to about 9 meets excluding Districts and Nationals.</p>
<p>I capped my speech points Oct. 2008 so I haven’t been able to receive points from those. I’ve just done well at nationals, districts, and I do congress and get service points too.</p>