Again, Fish also says that "once ideas or themes are allowed in, the focus is shifted from the forms that make the organization of content possible to this or that piece of content," thereby acknowledging the importance of content. Significantly, he made his remarks in the course of a graduation address, not of a treatise, His emphasis, as well as his virtual ommissions, must be understood in that light. And he does twice, if briefly, signal his concern for the meat of discourse. In a sort of meta-sense, the fact that he bothers to make a speech whose content is a brief presentation systematic remedial approach to what he sees as a widespread problem is a further proof that his concern is not exclusively for form. By calling attention to his perception that the content of most high school debate is unrigorous drivel, he is pointing out that what the spouting of that unrigorous drivel has replaced in the classroom is the development of the facility to reason. His method is extreme, but so is the problem.
This is my take on his meaning. Whether I agree or disagree with his approach is another matter, and falls outside my remarks.
