8S Debates

Ever since 8S finished our exams to our senior schools, we have been looking at different debate topics. We divided into groups and planned speeches which we went on to use in a proper debate. This gave us an insight on the detailed planning and preparation which has to go on before a successful debate.

We chose three statements, ‘This house believes that the voting age should be lowered to 16’, ’This house believes that violent video games should be banned’ and ‘This house believes that lying is never necessary’. Once we had chosen groups and sides in accordance to our actual views we were given time for research and to plan our speeches.

We have definitely all learnt things about our particular topics and also about the rules and ways of a proper debate. Sam H says, ‘You have to take into account all points of view, even if we don’t believe in them.’ Also Tilly S says, ‘I have learnt about the formal layout and rules of a debate which I had no idea about before.’ Yesterday was our first debate on the banning of video games. This, being our first formal argument, was extremely interesting. We were impressed by the ‘for’ team’s opening speeches and were all swayed their way. However as we opened up the floor and grilled each team to try and find flaws in their argument we realised that the ‘against’ team had a plan B which they executed well in the questioning section of the debate. Therefore we have all seen the importance of having a backup plan, and of being prepared for a cross-examination of our argument.

We still have two more debates to do and we are all looking forward to hearing their reasoning and looking for any flaws they may have.

Overall 8S have really enjoyed learning more about a formal debate and seeing the detailed tactics and planning that is crucial if a team is going to uphold a successful argument on their specific case.

Florence McK