But, this year, Americans are once again debating class.
The syllabus on Fridays before the first world war was relaxed enough to include a debating class for my father and his contemporaries at Raywood Street school, Battersea.
Every single debating class.
Next, Mr. Corcoran sets up his classroom as a discussion and debating class, where textbooks and traditional tests were never used.
Coolidge attended Black River Academy and then Amherst College, where he distinguished himself in the debating class, as a senior joined the fraternity Phi Gamma Delta and graduated cum laude.
Ms. Reidy has since restored the debate classes, appointed her assistant principal to run the program and picked four English teachers to coach.
Bart Giamatti of Yale University used to say that all the noise that pours forth from universities-all the lectures, debates, classes, protests, all of that brouhaha-is perhaps, in the end, the music of civilization.
During her tenure, coaches say, Ms. Reidy has canceled two debate classes, failed to hire a full-time director, cut the team's budget and refused to return their phone calls.
But for those looking for a less familiar collection of Jewish history, stories and debates, classes covering the entire Jerusalem Talmud may be downloaded in MP3 format at yerushalmionline.org.org
