Phoebe and Her Unicorn by Dana Simpson for May 17, 2021

These two take “The odd couple” to a whole new level.

When real politicians are confronted with something that does not compute, the response is to change the subject to the talking points they rehearsed.

So then Phoebe will either try to argue for a longer time or in yet another twist try to shorten or get rid of recess just to be able to argue:-O.

you really painted yourself into a corner on this one, Phoebe

Max: “Quick! Someone call an ambulance… but not for me!”

Now Phoebe reminds me of the “never argue with an idiot” saying…

Max has actually based his point on valid questions… He’s the winner.

We used to play first to 15, not this newfangled timed stuff.

Wait a minute Max. You’re arguing recess length solely on behalf of handball players. In fact, you sound like you want to set up a handball league.

Okay, two problems with this plan. One, your argument is just subverting recess for an organized activity. One not necessarily shared by others. And two, the teachers and school administrators aren’t going to agree to two fifteen minutes time expansions. And when the students don’t get the reward they are expecting, they’re gonna be upset. And they’ll probably take it out on you

Handball? Must have been invented after I was out of elementary school, nobody played that. Kickball was the game of choice back then. Dodgeball was a close second.

Handball? Never heard of ANY Elementary school kids playing handball. Kickball, dodgeball, but not handball.

Just give up, you can’t argue against 15 more minutes unless you want to obtain the hate or your classroom.

Wait. Couldn’t Phoebe argue that recess should be five minutes longer than Max is arguing? If Phoebe was just told “Argue that recess should be five minutes longer”, she wasn’t told what she had to argue it should be five minutes longer than…

Phoebe, you are really being unpleasant. If you can’t debate ex tempore just raising your voice doesn’t get you anthing.

Hang on, I thought Phoebe had the “recess should be longer” side.

in my day it was dodgeball.

Phoebe hasn’t yet realized that she is working on her own made-up, unfounded assumptions about debating, and has no idea what actual debating is supposed to be. Will she discover this?

It seem Max is debating her socks off.

lol

They will grow up to become Fairly Oddparents…

If that’s Max’s case, then I say that recess should be 50 minutes long and the game in question should be football (or soccer for you Merkans out there!)

Ahem! Phoebe! And Max, the bell rang. Shake hands and make up and get to class.

This reminds me of a debate I oversaw between boys and girls at an afterschool club. The topic in questions was ‘should boys and girls be educated separately’, and of course the kids all started with the assumption that separately would mean that the girls would get a lesser education (because traditionally in most cultures that’s been the way it has been), which put the boys on the offensive and the girls on the defensive. Until one girl stood up and said ‘no, they should be educated separately, because boys are lazy, disrespectful, immature, and disruptive, and girls shouldn’t have to put up with that in their classes.’ Suddenly the boys had all their own arguments turned against them and had no idea what to say in their own defense. It was great to see!

He has a point. :)