Over at College Insurrection, we posted a story about Harvard’s recent debate loss to a team of inmates from New York.
Fox News reported Tuesday that the inmates who beat Harvard’s team are gaining quite the reputation having also beat teams from West Point and the University of Vermont. Unlike most debate squads, the inmates had no Internet access to assist in their debate prep.
A group of New York inmates has toppled Harvard’s prestigious debate team.It took place at the Eastern New York Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison in Napanoch. The Ivy League undergrads were invited last month to debate the inmates who take in-prison courses taught by Bard College faculty.Harvard’s team won the national title this year and the world championship in 2014.But the inmates are building a reputation, too. The club has notched victories against teams from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and the University of Vermont.Against Harvard, the inmates were tasked with defending the position that public schools should be allowed to turn away students whose parents came to the U.S. illegally. Harvard’s team responded, but a panel of neutral judges declared the inmates victorious.
Tuesday, hosts of ABC’s Good Morning America covered the story, only to mock the inmate debate squad:
“They have a lot of time,” said one GMA hostess while the rest cackled.
“I was thinking that but I wasn’t going to say it,” said George Stephanopoulos.
“I’ve been in college and it’s really hard,” she continued.
Inmate Alex Hall said, “we might not be as rhetorically gifted, but we work really hard.”
[H/T Media Equalizer]
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