Another excellent session with our St Philip's debating and interview club.
Our skill of the week looked at rebuttal, and the importance of active listening to allow the speaker to respond in a debate, how to criticize a point with impact, whilst retaining politeness too.
For our warm-up question we asked (with 'Why'/justification absolutely crucial) a philosophical question:
(i) Do animals think?
With many in the group possessing pets at home - this question made for a very interesting discussion. Some in the group supported the idea of animal sentience beyond just instinct - and pointing to the appearance of guilt amongst their pets at certain times; whilst others thought that animals worked on instinct alone. We also discussed a Today programme item on an Octopus study (and their intelligence) and the poignant war memorial to animals in London that died in conflict.
We then turned to a Newsround focussing on:
Donations for politicians
The widening conflict in the Middle East
Sporting news
The War in Ukraine
The US Presidential election
Our debates covered the motions:
(i) 'Should politicians be allowed to receive donations?' - following the headlines in the last week surrounding Sir Keir Starmer and members of his cabinet
(ii) 'Should people work from home?' - on the back of Government and Amazon business announcements (to the contrary of each other)
We split into teams following an initial vote on each motion. The group opposed political donations and indeed put forward the idea that if a politician had been given a donation they should give it away to charity. At the same time the group did not want the tax payer to cover donations for political campaigning, so a middle ground was found - with the argument that donations for political campaigning (leaflets, offices etc.) would be permitted, but not for clothing, holidays and wider accommodation.
On working from home - the group was again divided - with many keen on flexible working for managing childcare, to those that argued that profitability was key for a business (and in turn the employee) and if that meant being in the office
then that should be the key.
In the context of political conference season, we also looked at an unseen - seeing if students could recognise the deputy prime minister, and if they had that role, what would they prioritise?
Answers included inter alia: education (reversing the 20% VAT proposals on private school fees), finance, healthcare, supporting the PM, health, and culture/sport. Well done all!
Comments