Cecil A. Partee Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

A: Well, just like going out for the football team, going out for the debating
team, or going out for the choral group, you know. They gave everybody a
chance at it and then they would pick out the ones they want for the team.
Q: What was your first debate, do you remember?
II
A: I really don't. I really don't. I don't remember the subjects on any of
those. It's interesting, I can remember the ones from high school, but I
can't from college. As I said to you, the ones from high school were subjects
which really didn't have any final answer but they were calculated to inspire
you and inculcate in you the research process. So you would go out and
research things and learn to use a library and get information and all. And
it was more calculated to do that than it was to give you any final answers to
the debate--llke which is more destruative, fire or water, you know, and things
like that. But in college, I don't remember. I don't remember any of the
subjects. I don't remember.
II
Q: Did you find much better resource at college for . . .
A: Well, not only better resources but we had individual instruction as to how
best to carry your point. How to, you know, move with the negatives first;
if you had something in your argument that you knew was negative, you should
start with it and build it. At least, give it some sort of a veneer that makes
it less vulnerable when the other person attacks it. If somebody is going to
say something about your weak point, it's better you mention your weak point
first so it becomes stronger as you mention it than it would be if you didn't
mention it, sort of ignored it and someone comes in and--then
when they knock it down.
it's devastating
It's the same way I do the--you know, it's a carry-over into law. ks I was
practicing law, if I had a person that I represented who had been/to penitentiary
before, I didn't let the state say he had been at penitentiary. In
picking the jury, I would say, "Now, this man has been to the penitentiary.
Are you going to hold that against him in this case? Would you not believe
him, because he's been convicted before?" So that you would take the weakness
of your own position, surface it yourself and give it as much strength as is
humanly possible, rather than to sit there and let him look like a choir boy
and then have the other side say, "Well, you know, this guy's been to the
penitentiary before," and then the people say, "Ah, ha!" So, that kind of
thing.
Q: What other schools did you debate with?
A: Yes, I guess we debated at a school called Lane College. That was down in
Jackson, Tennessee. We had a debate with Fisk University which was in Nashville.
I think we debated Kentucky State and--geez, that's so, that's so
fuzzy.