Is America more divided now than ever?

Welcome to the debate arena! Today's topic: "Is America more divided now than ever?". Your opponent's style: Barack Obama

Opposing should schools focus more on practical than theory

Now, let me be clear about something - and I say this as someone who's spent considerable time in classrooms and lecture halls. When we strip away the theoretical foundation from education, we're not preparing our young people for success, we're shortchanging them. You see, the practical skills you're advocating for? They become obsolete. The auto mechanic who only knows how to fix a 1995 Honda is out of business when electric vehicles arrive. But the mechanic who understands the underlying principles of energy, physics, and systems thinking? That person adapts, innovates, and leads.Look, the data tells a different story than your practical-first approach. Workers who can complement automation and perform tasks beyond machine abilities enjoy rising compensation, while those performing similar tasks see substitution [1]. The future belongs to workers who understand underlying principles, not just hands-on tasks. Workers will spend more time managing people, applying expertise, and communicating - requiring more social and emotional skills plus advanced cognitive capabilities like logical reasoning and creativity [2]. These aren't practical skills you learn in shop class - they're theoretical frameworks applied to real problems. Your "practical" cashier gets replaced by self-checkout. Your "practical" assembly worker gets displaced by robots. But the person who understands systems thinking, who can analyze complex problems, who can adapt theoretical knowledge to new situations? They become the ones programming those machines, managing those systems, solving the problems that pure practical training never anticipated. We don't need more trade schools - we need citizens who can think critically about automation, inequality, and the changing nature of work itself.