The great debaters movie study guide

The Great Debaters 1. Compare and contrast the following quotes from the film: a. Debater Henry Lowe: “School’s the only place you can read all day, except prison.” b. Dr. James L. Farmer: “We must impress upon our young people that there will be difficulties that they face. They must defeat them. They must do what they have to do in order to do what they want to do. Education is the only way out. The way out of ignorance. The way out of darkness, into the glorious light.” 2. In her first debate attempt, Samantha Booke cites one of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s fireside chats, a series of 31 talks he gave via radio between 1933 and 1944. Melvin B. Tolson, the debate coach, states she’s used the faulty assumption fallacy because fireside chats are not reputable sources. Consider how you evaluate sources. Should presidential addresses be considered reputable sources for a debate? Why or why not? 3. In the film, Dr. Farmer frequently says, “We do what we have to do, so that we can do what we want to do.” How does this apply in the film? How does it apply to your own life? To your larger community? How does this apply to common reader? Questions taken from ProCon.org The Great Debaters Discussion Guide 4. The character, Melvin B. Tolson states: “Debate is bloodsport. It’s combat. But, your weapons are words.” Is debate bloodsport? Combat? Are words weapons? Should they be? Explore and explain your reactions to these words. 5. Of Tolson, Langston Hughes said, “But Melvin Tolson is no highbrow. Kids from the cottonfields like him. Cowpunchers understand him. He is a great teacher of the kind of which any college might be proud ... And the likes of him is found no where else but in the great State of Texas - because there is only one Tolson!” Consider Tolson’s multifaceted life: professor, debate coach, poet, organizer, father, and husband, among other roles. How might each of those roles affect his debate coaching and his own ability to debate? 6. In reality, James L. Farmer, Jr. was on the 1934 Wiley debate team and later worked alongside Martin Luther King, Jr. during the Civil Rights Movement. Does the film show any indication that Farmer may go on to work in Civil Rights as an adult? In which scenes? How might being a debater in his youth have helped his Civil Rights career? 7. Compare and contrast Samantha Booke’s statement after her first debate performance- “I didn't need a gun. I didn’t need a knife”--to the situation Henry Lowe finds himself in at the beginning of the movie when the husband of a woman he’s been flirting with threatens him with a knife, and, in turn, Henry threatens the man with the knife. Questions taken from ProCon.org The Great Debaters Discussion Guide 8. Take the affirmative for the final debate topic: Civil disobedience is a moral weapon in the fight for justice. Conversely, take the negative for the final debate topic: Civil disobedience is a moral weapon in the fight for justice. 9. How would you evaluate the arguments given by the debaters in the final debate? How would their arguments be judged in a modern debate? 10. Each of the debate questions in the film is about justice in some way. What questions would you choose to have the team debate today? Questions taken from ProCon.org The Great Debaters Discussion Guide ...