This was another great session with our St Kitt's International Academy debating and interview club.
Our skills of the week focussed on how to tackle/manage public speaking nerves and how best to use Points of Information - an important skill for debating competitions.
For our warm-up question we asked (with 'Why'/justification absolutely crucial):
(i) What is your favourite hobby?
This took in reading, travel, chess, musical instruments, painting, riding, rugby, football and swimming amongst other pursuits.
(ii) We also explored what qualifies as art? / Who decides what art is? / is beauty in the eye of the beholder?
This led to a fascinating discussion - from contemporary to renaissance examples and questions of creativity or message.
We then turned to a Newsround focussing on:
The US Presidential Election
A Shark attack in St Kitt's
A ban in the US on RT - Twitter being banned in Brazil
Another assassination attempt on Donald Trump
Keir Starmer's US and Italian visits
The War in Ukraine
Floods in Eastern Europe
Local St Kitt's police news
Our central debates covered the motions:
(i) 'This House would ban junk food online advertising and television advertising (before 9pm)'
- here we saw an excellent debate with jobs, finance and practicality battling against the importance of health for children and adults as a whole. 80% voted in favour of a ban. The questions of a 'nanny state'/freedom of choice, and the actual impact of ban were explored as well as managing expectations for children and parents.
(ii) 'This House would ban phones in school'
- having split into teams we saw voting begin with 60% against a ban. By the second telling this had moved to 80%. Many felt phones were useful to learning if managed well, from calculators to helpful language/translate/dictionary tools. Those against felt they were distractions from day-to-day learning. This was an excellent debate - very well done all.
Looking forward to next week!
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