The Good Teacher

370  The Dreaded Outcome

After the hubbub settled, Guy took the podium and addressed the crowd. "This concludes the Rebuttal segment of the debate. Now, we move on to the deliberation segment. This is where YOU-" he gestured towards the audience and judges, "-get to decide who the winner of this debate is."

With that said, the crowd dispersed for a short break, and the judges shuffled out into a different room to deliberate on who the winner should be. Guy allotted half an hour for the judges to come to terms. As he entered the room with them, though, he was greeted with a heated debate taking place already.

"Team 1 had a more structured argumentation. Especially their closing rebuttals, they captured the weaknesses of the opposing team concisely-" Markus said.

But he was interjected by Marie, who argued, "But they failed to properly prop up their own argument. I think Team 2 did better in that regard. While Team 1 had a better rebuttal, Team 2 had a more robust construction."

"Is that how we decide the winner, though?" Shuri cut in. "Isn't it about which definition is better amongst the two?"

At that point, Elder Nara cut in and said, "That's where you are wrong, girl."

All heads turned towards the elderly man, and he expounded on his point, "Imagine this was a fight between two combatants. The purpose of the fight is to apply the knowledge gained from a particular martial art. One combatant manages to knock out the other. Would you award the prize to the loser, just because their understanding of the martial art, and their form was far superior to the latter?"

"I wouldn't," Shuri answered with a defeated sigh. "But this is different-"

"Is it, though?" Elder Nara challenged. "The debate isn't about which side is right, it is about which side presented the most structured and convincing argument. Do not let your bias enter into the decision-making process. If you do that, then you aren't evaluating the debaters, you are evaluating the topic itself. And in that case, you don't even need people to debate for you, you might as well just read the reports and construct your own judgement from that."

At this moment, Guy decided to step in and said, "I agree with Elder Nara. The debate is all about the arguments, not the topic itself. Heck, we could have a debate discussing the 'morality of throwing puppies as an entertainment sport', and the team arguing in favour could still win if their points are well-structured and supported."

"That's a rather dark example," Elder Nara admitted with a light chuckle.

The others nodded contemplatively as they digested this input.

"So, do we have a consensus?" Guy probed again.

"Even with what Master said, we are at an impasse," Marie jumped in. "You see, Shuri and I stand behind Team 2, while Master and Markus are with Team 1."

"Why is that?" Guy asked while leaning against a desk.

"We think that Team 2's arguments were more critical of the far-reaching consequences of Definition 1. Especially the nature of standardisation and how it is reliant on a singular body to maintain uniformity," Shuri chimed in. "Senior Sister Marie and I believe that the down-the-line implications are extremely crucial, which was well addressed by Team 2, not so much by Team 1."

"On the other hand," Markus carried over. "Elder Nara and I believe that the underlined pseudo-open-endedness in Definition 2, especially in how they used mass conservation as an analogue for comparison, is a problem factor. The debate was to learn which side has the better definition, it is evident that while Definition 1 may not be the best, it is still better than Definition 2."

"I do find it odd that Elder Nara and Marie are standing on opposite ends here," Guy commented with an intrigued snort. "Especially because Marie here brought up the point about 'far-reaching consequences'. Isn't that, like, your whole shtick?"

Elder Nara let out a derisive scoff and said, "It's because the girl can't see what's in front of her nose that she has to look so far away. Heck, she'll fall down a pit right by her feet before she even reaches the cliff she is trying to avoid!"

"You aren't even interested in this debate, old man!" Marie snapped back. "I bet you're just being a contrarian to piss me off!"

"Says who?" Elder Nara argued back. "You? Ha! I'm big enough to admit when I'm wrong."

He then turned to Guy and said, "You were right. This debate WAS more interesting than I anticipated. If there are more you need me to get involved in, I'll gladly do so."

Marie let out an astounded yelp at her Master's shamelessness.

"Let's not descend into pointless arguments," Guy intervened. "Is there no way that any one of you will change your mind regarding your stance?"

Looking around, Guy only saw unwillingness in their eyes, even Elder Nara who was uncharacteristically invested in this debate.

"It seems that we have to resort to counting the audience's votes to get a tie-breaker," Guy surmised with a long exhale. "Alright, then. Hold on tight!"

____

The voting session lasted for precisely ten minutes. Each member of the audience was handed a chit of paper, and they were told to either write in Team 1 or Team 2 for whom they thought won the debate round. Guy wanted to take a moment to instruct the audience about how not to be unbiased in their votes, such as by not basing it on the team with the people they were familiar with and liked, or by not voting for the paper that spawned the definition but rather the arguments defending it. But he decided to leave it as is. The audience wasn't supposed to be the stone-hearted judge who had to evaluate each point and counterpoint down to the minutiae. Heck, even the existing judges couldn't manage to detach their emotions from their decisions.

No, the audience was a gauge. A gauge to see how interesting and dynamic the debate was. There were no criteria or basis to this, apart from the apparent aura that was exuded from the stage. The aura of the debate is like a wave, it has ebbs and flows - akin to any combat sport. If the debate is interesting and able to enrapture the audience, they will also react to this ebb and flow. And just like the deposits that are carried by the ebbing and flowing, they will eventually settle on one side or the other for one reason or another.

Therefore, after letting the audience follow their guts and vote for their preferred team, Guy brought the chits in and started counting them.

"This is impossible!" Guy bellowed in shock. He then poured out all the counted votes and repeated the process in a more deliberate manner.

"I can't believe it!" Guy said out loud. He looked up to the interested faces of his four judges and confessed his disbelief, "It's a tie!"

This revelation was met with four symphonic groans. At that moment, Markus snapped his fingers and said, "You still haven't voted, Master! Your word could break the tie!"

"I can't do that," Guy denied immediately. "I pronounced myself a moderator. I cannot pass judgements or else it will taint the sanctity of the position and the whole procedure."

"Then what do you suggest we do?" Markus followed up.

"Well, we still have seven individuals who haven't placed a vote yet," Marie offered.

"We can't ask the participants to cast votes, they will obviously vote for themselves. And given the fact that Team 2 is short one member, it is obvious that the victory will fall towards Team 1 by default," Shuri countered.

"I really hate passing a tie as the judgement," Guy groaned. "It's a complete cop-off, and annoys the crowd to no end."

"You could reframe the call," Elder Nara said at this juncture. "Hype up the crowd and convince them that the tie was the only option, instead of making them feel like it was a consolation. And then, do what Marie suggested and ask the participants to evaluate themselves. Maybe their minds might have changed through this process. Besides, was it not the initial goal of the debate?"

Guy hummed in thought for a while before saying, "Let's try it out your way, then."

____

"Ladies and gentlemen, apologies for the long delay. But our judges were in a quarry. Both sides placed their arguments so well, that the decision was split even right down the middle," Guy started with an enthusiastic flourish. Before the groans could roll in from the audience's side, he quickly moved forward and said, "So we decided to take the words of you, the audience, in breaking this forsaken tie. But would you believe it, something even more frustrating happened! The audience was also split evenly down the middle! It is unprecedented!"

This revelation gave pause to the crowd, who were uncertain of how to react. "As proof, we have placed the voting box exactly as it is to the side. Anyone is free to verify the count."

Guy paused, to let the audience stew in suspense. "But you see, I really hate calling a tie to such a heated debate. Especially since it was our first one. But I also feel that because everyone here is so conflicted about assigning victory to one side over the other, we cannot give the win to one side for ceremony's sake - that would be doing a disservice to our participants."

He then said, "So, we have decided to let the debaters take part in deciding the outcome. From the very beginning, the goal was to develop a conducive platform to discuss differences in opinion and form a common understanding. Therefore, we will now call each member of the teams above to take the podium and answer two questions."

Guy raised his index finger and enumerated, "To what extent do you agree with the stance you held when the debate started? Is it the same, or has it differed? Why?"

Guy raised his middle finger and said, "Second, and finally, what are the points you agree and disagree with that were brought forth by your opponents? Why?"

With that declared, Guy turned to the participants and said, "You have exactly five minutes to prepare your answers. And your time starts, now!"

Word Count: 1745

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