American School of London - 1st April 2026

This week we began with a warm-up question, about whether 'we should have to learn to play chess at school'. This widened to a bigger discussion about whether you should only ever learn what you enjoy doing, especially for extra curricular activities, or whether there should be a degree of initial compulsion as learning a new skill will always be effortful at first. This segued nicely into discussing new research from Exeter University that suggests that squirrels are prepared to work harder for greater rewards; should humans too?! . Studies show that even as climbs become steeper and higher, squirrels consistently opt for higher-quality rewards such as the much prized almond over the more easily obtained pumpkin seeds.

Our philosophical debate this week differed from previous debates in that there was evidently no clear winner: 'This house believes that red is a better colour than blue.' The appealing aspect of a debate like this is that, as it is quite existential in nature, it lends itself to focusing purely on persuasive techniques and creativity. In an age where fact finding is perhaps the 'pumpkin seeds' of debating skills, perhaps we need to find ways to get students to climb for the more rewarding and complex competencies of creativity and original thought.