MOTIONS
List of all CTMSDL motions (most recent to oldest):
February 8, 2025 Tournament Prep ahead: This House Believes That (THBT) carbon capture is essential to fighting climate change. Info Slide: Carbon capture technologies capture carbon dioxide from emission sources before it enters the atmosphere. This topic was featured on Open to Debate.
December 14, 2024 Tournament Prep ahead: This House Believes That (THBT) schools should ban smart phones & watches only during instructional time instead of from bell-to-bell.
Bell-to-bell means from when the first bell rings at the start of the school day to begin instructional time until the dismissal bell rings at the end of the academic school day. Bell-to-bell includes lunch and time in between class periods.
Extemp 1: THW require students to study a second language.
Extemp 2: TH, as a politically active teenager, W talk about politics at holiday meals.
October 26, 2024 Novice Scrimmage + Open Tournament: Prep ahead: This House would make voting compulsory. Voting must be defined as voting in U.S. local, state, and / or federal elections. Voting may NOT be defined, for example, as voting in school class officer elections, or voting in other countries.
Extemp 1: You are the President of the United States. You receive top-secret evidence that intelligent extraterrestrials exist. This House, as the President, would NOT inform the world.
Extemp 2: THBT board & card games are better than video games.
Extemp 3: You are an American voter who has decided to vote in a Presidential election that has 3 candidates. Polls show the candidate you prefer has 0% chance of winning in your state. Polls show either of the other 2 candidates could win. This House, as that voter, would vote for the candidate you prefer instead of voting for a candidate that has a chance of winning. (Note: Not voting is not an option for you.)
April 6, 2024 Championship: Prep ahead: This House believes that only violent criminals should be incarcerated.
Extemp: 1. This House would allow formerly incarcerated persons to serve on juries.
Info slide: The 6th Amendment of the US Constitution says: “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed…”
Prosecutions are trials.
Impartial means unbiased.
A jury is a group of people summoned and sworn to decide on the facts in issue at a trial. The jury is composed of people who represent a cross-section of the community. The jury listens to the evidence during a trial, decides what facts the evidence has established, and draws inferences from those facts to form the basis for their decision regarding the guilt of the person being tried. (American Bar Association)
Most U.S. states bar persons who were convicted and incarcerated for crimes from serving on juries. The total number of Americans thus banned from jury service is more than 20 million.
2: This House would grant incarcerated workers the same labor protections afforded to other U.S. workers.
Info slide: The Fair Labor Standards Act gives employees in the U.S. rights including: minimum wage, health & safety standards, unionization, protection from discrimination, and speedy access to redress when their rights are violated.
All U.S. federal and most state prisons require able-bodied prisoners to work: almost 2 out of every 3 prisoners (roughly 800,000) have work assignments.
On average they earn between 13 and 52 cents per hour.
They produce more than $2 billion per year in goods and more than $9 billion per year in services (mostly for the maintenance of prisons).
They are not considered employees and are thus not covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act because the Thirteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution allows slavery and involuntary servitude as a punishment for convicted criminals.
3: This House, as a Middle Schooler, would turn in a friend for cheating.
Info slide: “Turn in” means tell someone in authority at the school (a teacher or administrator).
February 10, 2024: Prep ahead: This House, as a Middle Schooler, would choose not to use social media.
Extemp: 1. This House, as public Middle Schools, would require students to complete community service hours.
Definition of community service: work that is done without pay to help people in a community.
2. This House, as public Middle Schools, would make physical education (also called PE or gym) classes optional instead of required.
December 16, 2023 Tournament: Prep ahead: This House would set maximum age limits for elected office.
Extemp: 1. This House would lower the voting age in the U.S
Info Slide: U.S. citizens must be 18 to vote in state and federal elections and most local elections. Several U.S. cities and towns have lowered the voting age for local elections to age 16. Some countries allow citizens to vote at age 16, some at age 17, and some at age 18.
2. This House would require employers to give employees paid time off to vote
Info Slide: Election Day in the U.S. is the first Tuesday of November. Polls are generally open from 7 am to 8 pm. U.S. federal law does not require employers to give employees time off to vote on Election Day. 29 states and the District of Columbia do. Some require that the time off be paid, others do not. 21 states (including CT) do not require employers to give employees time off.
November 4, 2023 Novice Scrimmage + Open Tournament: Prep ahead: This House supports student uniforms.
Extemp: 1. THW ban homework in grades K-5. Info Slide: Definition of homework from Wikipedia: Homework is a set of tasks assigned to students by their teachers to be completed at home. Common homework assignments may include required reading, a writing or typing project, mathematical exercises to be completed, information to be reviewed before a test, or other skills to be practiced.
2. THW mandate the teaching of cursive writing and reading in elementary school.
Definition of cursive from Wikipedia: Cursive is any style of penmanship in which characters are written joined in a flowing manner, generally for the purpose of making writing faster, in contrast to block letters.
Info Slide: Last month California became the 18th state to require public elementary schools in the state to teach children how to write and read cursive.
April 1, 2023 Championship: This House believes that Artificial Intelligence (AI) will do more harm than good.
February 11, 2023 Tournament: This House would give low-income parents vouchers for their children to attend private schools.
December 17, 2022 Tournament: This House believes that state lotteries do more harm than good.
October 22, 2022 Novice Scrimmage + Open Tournament: This House believes that zoos do more harm than good.
May 7, 2022 Championship: This House, as the US Federal Government, would institute a Universal Basic Income (UBI).
April 2, 2022 Tournament: This House would eliminate school Gifted & Talented programs.
February 12, 2022: This House regrets the rise of space tourism.
December 18, 2021 Tournament: This House would boycott the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
October 16, 2021 Scrimmage: This House would ban direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising in the U.S.
May 22, 2021 Championship: This House, as the International Criminal Court, would make ecocide an international crime.
April 24, 2021: This House, as the US federal and state governments, would not require standardized testing for the 2020-21 school year.
February 27, 2021: This House would ban law enforcement from performing genetic genealogy searches in consumer databases.
December 19, 2020: This House believes that televised Presidential debates do more harm than good.
October 24, 2020: This House, as Facebook, would ban all political advertising.
RESCHEDULED FROM APRIL 4 TO MAY 9, 2020: This House believes that it’s time to expand nuclear power for civilian use.
January 25, 2020: This House would require corporate boards to have women members.
December 14, 2019: This House regrets the worldwide proliferation of surveillance cameras.
October 19, 2019: This House supports the restitution of cultural objects.
This House would prohibit the development and implementation of human gene editing.
This House, as the United States, would ban hate speech.
This House would allow incarcerated felons to vote.
This House would include E-sports in the Olympic Games.
This House believes that Artificial Intelligence will do more good than harm.
This House would eliminate executive pardons and commutations.
This House would implement year-round schooling.
This House believes that (THBT) National Service should be compulsory in the United States.
This House would colonize Mars.
This House would eliminate life without the possibility of parole sentences for all adults.
This House would make voting in US elections compulsory.
This House would not assign homework.
This House would provide a path to citizenship for immigrants living illegally in the US.
This House believes that the United States should curtail free speech rights in order to combat terrorism.
This House would establish a program to revive extinct species and restore them to the environment.
This House would lower the voting age for all US elections to 16 years.
This House would require police to wear body cameras when on duty.
This House believes that zoos do more harm than good.
This House would permit schools to discipline students for internet and phone
activity.
